By the Way You Dance (I Knew It Was You)
by slantedknitting
Summary: Arthur conducts the orchestra for a ballet company run by Morgana. Gwen is the head choreographer and they are rehearsing a brand new full-length ballet with original choreography. Merlin is the new principal dancer. Modern AU.


**5 Weeks to Premiere**

There was nothing to do but wait, so Arthur tapped his baton lightly on the wooden podium in front of him. He kept time for no one, doing his best impression of a metronome and idly clicking his teeth on every fourth beat.

"How did you ever manage to get away with holding the baton like that?"

Arthur glanced over at his Associate Conductor, Leon. "Excuse me?" he asked, chuckling.

Leon shrugged, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "I've always been curious. I would have been chucked out of school after an hour if I'd insisted on doing it that way."

Arthur looked down at the baton in his hand. Its long, thin shaft, poking out between the base of his index and middle fingers, should have been resting squarely between the pad of his thumb and the side of his first finger.

"I like gesturing with my hand open," he said, demonstrating. He uncurled his fingers and the baton stayed where it was tucked. He clamped his thumb down on the handle to show that he still had complete control over its movements. "It's more awkward to do that holding it any of the traditional ways."

"Yeah, but how did you even come up with that, and how did you get away with it?" Leon pressed.

"I don't remember how I came up with it," Arthur admitted, standing up a bit straighter as he saw the Artistic Director finally enter the theatre. "And I mostly hid it and forced myself to do it the normal way." He stepped off the podium and let himself out of the orchestra pit. "Except during exams," he called over his shoulder as he went to greet his sister.

"Nice of you to show up," Arthur said, falling into step next to Morgana as she strode down the aisle towards the stage.

"I'm 5 minutes early," she said dully.

"Everyone else is here," Arthur pointed out.

"Everyone else is a nerd." Morgana smiled sweetly and kissed Arthur on the cheek before gracefully lifting herself up onto the stage and disappearing behind the grand red curtain.

Arthur returned to the pit and knocked his baton against the side of the podium a few times to get the attention of his orchestra.

"Any questions before we begin?"

There was a quiet murmuring of "no."

"Good. Remember to slow down at the end of the first act."

The curtain jerked open sloppily and Arthur rolled his eyes. The stage managers always insisted on hiring new stagehands at the beginning of each season and it never failed to wreak havoc during the first few rehearsals.

Morgana made her way to centre stage as if she didn't really notice what she was doing, but Arthur could see past her feigned indifference. This was the first time her new principal dancer would be at a full joint rehearsal, and there was a lot riding on his success.

Gwen, the Resident Choreographer, joined Morgana on stage with a much more purposeful gait. Arthur grinned at her when she met his gaze, and she gave him a small smile in return.

"Can everyone hear me?" Morgana asked, looking to her sides and addressing the dancers who were off-stage and waiting in the wings. "Good. For those of you who are new - welcome to our first joint rehearsal." She said it without much cheer, but still encouraged a round of applause. Arthur clapped lightly.

"We are going to start off with a full run-through, without any stops if possible. We are not expecting perfection, and we know that the dancers will be distracted by the musicians and vice versa. Our main objective here is to give everyone a chance to get used to each other. We'll iron out the big kinks this afternoon, but as far as this morning goes I'll be happy as long as no one falls off the stage."

There was some quiet laughter from the pit and in the wings. Arthur cleared his throat and took his place at the podium.

"Any questions?" Morgana paused and then called, loudly, "Places!" She watched the company rearranging themselves off stage for a minute before turning to Arthur. "Ready?"

Arthur gave her a curt nod and motioned for his orchestra to prepare.

"You're all familiar with the music," Gwen reminded the dancers, her voice just as loud and yet much sweeter than Morgana's. "Take a few moments to listen - really listen - to the orchestra's tempo. Remember to keep count in your head - you can't rely solely on the music - and let me know afterwards if anything feels wrong. The orchestra is going to play the first 16 bars for us to listen to first, and then after a pause they'll play them again and continue with the rest of the piece, and that's when you all will start. Does anybody have any concerns?"

"Places!" Morgana called again, not giving time for anyone to voice a concern. She gave Arthur the go-ahead with a vague wave of her hand and followed Gwen down off the edge of the stage.

Arthur waited until he heard Morgana and Gwen sitting down several rows behind him before raising his hands, his baton tucked comfortably between his first two fingers. He flicked his wrist to indicate the opening count, waggled his eyebrows at the first violinist, and gave a sweeping gesture to start the music.

The orchestra played through the first 16 bars without problem, and then played through them again as planned. Arthur glanced up as the first group of dancers ran gracefully onto the stage.

He loved joint rehearsals. The musicians were always more relaxed in these settings than in their private rehearsals. The collaborative work between him, Morgana, and Gwen was always at its height in front of their company, their creativity pushed to new limits under the pressure.

Then there were the dancers, whom Arthur secretly loved most of all. During performances, Arthur had to be all business. He needed to focus on the music, on his orchestra, and use the dancers simply as guides or checks. But during rehearsals, he could really watch and learn the dance, make adjustments based on individual dancers, help create something really beautiful that could be shared with an audience in the near future.

He also loved early joint rehearsals because the dancers didn't have their costumes yet, and some of the company preferred to rehearse in truly minimal clothing.

As the piece went on, Arthur watched the dancers more than he normally would, more than he probably should. He usually stopped by the dance studios a few times a week to observe their own rehearsals, especially in the weeks leading up to the first joint rehearsal for a new show or season. However, he'd spent the past few weeks avoiding the studios in a badly veiled attempt to act as if he didn't care that he'd just been dumped.

He had a bad habit of sleeping with the dancers, although he usually didn't take it much beyond that. Mithian had been different, though. They'd gotten along in a way he hadn't found in a long while and he'd really grown to care for her.

In the end, she wanted someone less married to their work, which Arthur thought was absurdly hypocritical, and had ended their seven-month relationship just before the new season's rehearsals had started.

Arthur had gotten over it quicker than he expected, but he still felt that his pride was a little too wounded for him to casually pop into rehearsals so soon after the break-up, so he hadn't seen any of the work for this piece yet, apart from the few "previews" Gwen and Morgana "treated" him to when they were tipsy and avoiding real work by barging into his flat and demanding access to his wine collection.

The show looked to be as promising as ever, although Arthur couldn't help but notice that there had only been a single male dancer on stage so far.

Finally, as Arthur was frantically gesturing for the musicians to _slow down_ at the end of the first act, he caught a glimpse of several men making their way onto the stage. He turned away from the dancers and the pit briefly to give Leon a significant look. Leon smiled tightly and jotted something down in the notebook he always had on hand. Arthur didn't know what he needed to do to get the orchestra to slow down just then, but he and Leon were going to have to continue working on it.

When the music was back on track in the second act, Arthur looked back up at the stage just in time to see a dancer do one of the highest leaps he'd ever seen. He felt his heart rate pick up just slightly and fought to keep conducting at the right pace.

It had to be the new principal, Merlin, because Arthur had never seen him before. He was captivating and it didn't even look like he was trying. It was only the first joint rehearsal, after all - there was no need for him to be putting that level of effort into it.

He walked elegantly to the dead centre of the stage - all long limbs and floppy dark hair - held his arms out, and spun in time with the oboe line. Arthur suppressed a shiver at the base of his spine. Merlin reset himself and then lifted off in another spin as if he didn't even belong on the ground in the first place. His ankles fluttered together as he landed and Arthur looked back down at the music on his podium.

"Christ," he muttered under his breath as he searched for his place. Gwen and Morgana had certainly done a good job finding a replacement for Morris, who had left at the end of the last season to join the Australian Ballet. Morris has been fine - talented, consistent, punctual - but there really hadn't been anything special about him. His performances never stirred anything inside Arthur, and Arthur, as the company's Music Director and Principal Conductor, didn't like to think of himself as unstirrable.

Merlin, on the other hand, looked to be a real show-stopper.

Or maybe those tiny skin-tight ballet trunks and that _crop top_ were just doing all the right things.

Either way, Arthur was intrigued. He smiled to himself as he flipped a page in the music, wondering how angry Morgana would be if he made a move this early, and glad that he suddenly had confirmation of just how recovered he was from being dumped by Mithian.

Arthur handed over conducting duties to Leon for the third act and went to sit with Morgana and Gwen.

"What do you think?" Gwen asked eagerly, passing him a bottle of water.

Arthur took a sip, pretending not to notice that Merlin was dancing with Mithian in a way that suggested they were about to flee off stage to get it on.

"It's great," he said as he handed the bottle back. "It's really - you've done a good job."

Gwen pursed her lips, biting down a smile. Arthur winked at her and turned back to the stage. She knew how he felt about her work. She had been the Assistant Choreographer for years before Arthur lost patience with watching her struggle for glory from the sidelines. He had managed - subtly, and that was the story he was sticking with - to convince the previous Resident Choreographer to accept a position at the Paris Opera Ballet, and then to convince Morgana to promote her into the vacancy. Morgana hadn't needed much convincing, but it was clear that she wouldn't have considered the promotion, or at least not considered it seriously, without Arthur's prodding.

This ballet in particular seemed to be the best one Gwen had done so far. There was something about it Arthur couldn't quite name, but it looked and felt special in a way he hadn't experienced in a long time.

"Where'd you find this guy again?" Arthur asked, nodding at the stage as Merlin leapt around in a circle with his alarmingly long legs.

"Just plucked him up off the streets," Morgana answered in a bored voice. She was filming the rehearsal on Gwen's phone and watching the dancers on the small screen in her hands with a frown.

"He just came from the San Francisco Ballet," Gwen explained. "He was with the Bolshoi for a bit before that. Studied at the Royal Danish School."

Arthur hummed, trying to appear disinterested even though he knew it was no use. Gwen and Morgana knew as well as he did that Merlin was _exactly_ his type - tall, dark, handsome, and apparently foreign. Mithian was the only woman he'd ever been with who also fit that description - normally he fell hard and fast for cute and cheery blonde women, and he'd never yet fallen for a cute and cheery blond man.

"He's straight and married and the father of four," Morgana said dryly.

Arthur snorted back a laugh. "I'll keep that in mind." He redirected his attention to the stage and watched Mithian and a soloist he'd slept with a few times, Elena, hopping their hearts out. Leon seemed to be conducting mostly with his elbows, apparently trying to get the string section to really milk the staccato notes.

Arthur folded his arms across his chest and watched the rest of the scene with the least critical eye he could manage, which mostly resulted in him picking out the parts that Gwen had choreographed by herself, and which Morgana had had a hand in.

When the third act reached its crescendo, Arthur made his way back to the pit and observed Leon conduct the last few minutes of the piece. Leon was a more dignified conductor than Arthur ever had been. Arthur tended to get a bit carried away and make large, sweeping, overly-emotional gestures. Sometimes it was just for show, but other times he really _felt_ the music and needed the musicians and the audience to _feel_ it, too. Leon wasn't stoic by any means, but he was slightly more hemmed in. He still got great performances out of the orchestra, and understood exactly what Arthur's vision was each season, and that was why Arthur kept him around.

Leon ended the third act with a slight head wiggle that reverberated through his wild, curly locks. Arthur gave him an encouraging smile as they switched places and Arthur took the lead on the fourth and final act.

Their company didn't normally open a season with an original piece, especially a full-length one, but they were trying to be bold this year. It had taken a long time for Morgana and Arthur to convince the board that it was worth the risk, that Gwen could carry them through this, and that it was finally their company's time to shine.

In the end, it was a deal Arthur made with his father that had allowed them to move forward with their plans. Uther Pendragon owned the oldest and most prestigious auction house in the city, and he was acting chairman of the board for Arthur and Morgana's company. He had, and would discuss at length, a keen eye and _ear_ for exquisite beauty. However, his eye was more tuned to fine art than ballet, which meant that his primary interest in the company was Arthur's orchestra.

In return for allowing Morgana to spearhead an original ballet, Arthur was required to compose an original piece of music for one of the upcoming seasons. When Arthur had agreed, Uther convinced the other board members to move forward with Gwen's show.

Morgana didn't know about the deal, and as far as Arthur was concerned, she never would. She didn't need to know that Uther was only doing this for Arthur, and she wouldn't need to be convinced by the board to use an original composition by Arthur for a ballet.

The agreement had been struck more than half a year ago, but Arthur hadn't made any significant progress on his piece. He'd made some strides while he'd been with Mithian, but he'd been completely uninspired since their break-up. His father phoned every week to check on progress and Arthur had taken to lying just to ease off some of the pressure.

Despite how stressful the expectations were, Arthur didn't mind the bargain. It allowed Gwen and Morgana to realise their dreams, and as far as Arthur could tell, it was all going to be worth it. Morgana had really grown into her own as the Artistic Director, and she knew both exactly what she wanted and how to communicate that to the other key players. Gwen's strong point of view as a choreographer had solidified over the previous two seasons, and this newest piece made it clear that she was only getting better and better. And Arthur - he knew the live music wasn't always the most important part, and that they could easily just use a recording instead of his orchestra, but he loved doing this and did truly feel that his influence made a difference in the final performance, even if it was small, or at least subtle.

Arthur, Leon, Gwen, and Morgana had chosen the music more than a year ago, and Morgana and Gwen had been working on the concept ever since. The story they'd come up with was that a young teacher (Mithian) brings a lizard into school to keep as a class pet. The lizard, naturally, is some sort of enchanted young man (Mordred, the only gay principal dancer Arthur hadn't slept with yet). One day, when the teacher is alone in her classroom, she takes the lizard out to clean the tank and he transforms into a human and kidnaps her. The teacher follows willingly at first, thinking the man to be a cursed prince or other typical romantic fairy tale sort. He takes her through a swamp and "accidentally" hurts her several times, but other animals (such as Elena, the bullfrog) keep mysteriously rescuing her. Eventually, she realises that he is an evil sorcerer who wants to kill her and absorb her life in order to live longer. The swamp's resident faerie (Merlin), who has been keeping an eye on the teacher during the whole ordeal, and occasionally wandering through a scene to seduce her while the evil man is setting up his next trap, finally steps in just when the sorcerer nearly succeeds at killing her. The faerie battles the evil sorcerer and emerges triumphant. Then he brings the teacher back to her classroom and transforms himself into another lizard so that he can keep watch over her during the day, and probably go home with her at night because over the course of the "journey" they somehow fall in love.

Arthur thought the story was a total laugh, but it definitely leant itself to some good ole fashioned ballet, so he couldn't fault Gwen and Morgana too much, especially when their style was more modern than good ole fashioned anything. Their company was known for pushing the boundaries between classical and contemporary ballet, and that was part of why the addition of Merlin was so exciting. Arthur didn't know nearly as much about ballet as he sometimes pretended, but he'd picked up enough over the years to know that American, Russian, and Danish styles of dancing, or at least training, were distinct. If Merlin had experience with all 3 kinds, he was going to be able handle all of the strange experiments that went on during rehearsals, and was probably going to be able to help the other dancers adjust their own styles accordingly.

The fourth act opened with the faerie heroically and miraculously defeating the evil sorcerer and bringing the beautiful teacher back from the brink of death. It was a long fight scene and the orchestra was capable of handling it on their own, so Arthur didn't bother to do much more than keeping time. Instead, he watched Merlin and Mordred flitting about on stage. They were a good match with a strange sort of entangled chemistry, but they looked enough like each other from a distance, mostly due to the floppy brown hair, that Arthur could already foresee the costume designers going to town on both of them.

The battle finally ended after a long sequence during which the two men took turns lifting and tossing each other around the stage. If one of them had been a woman, it would have been classic ballet foreplay. Sometimes Arthur didn't understand exactly what Morgana and Gwen were getting at with their choreography choices, but this rang loud and clear and Arthur found that he loved it. He liked watching the two dancers spin around each other, holding their intense eye contact before making physical contact and manhandling each other across the "swamp."

Eventually the scene changed and the faerie brought the teacher back to her classroom, alive and well. Arthur returned his attention to his orchestra and put more effort into conducting the second half of the act. He kept his eyes mostly on his friends in the pit - Gwaine over on the drums, Percy plucking along on the bass, and Gwen's brother, Elyan, heading up the second violins - and didn't watch too much of the romantic/sexy scene between Mithian and Merlin. Finally Mithian left the stage, her character going home after the long ordeal, and all that was left was for the faerie to turn himself into a lizard.

For a brief moment it looked as if Merlin wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to be doing. He stopped dancing and stood on the side of the stage, gazing out at the empty theatre. Arthur continued conducting, unwilling to stop the music so close to the end.

After a few bars, Merlin started dancing again, acting as if he hadn't just apparently forgotten his steps. He made long, flowing moves, his body curving in very appealing ways. Arthur went back to simply keeping time, his eyes glued to the stage as Merlin somehow managed to convey the slow transition from faerie-man to lizard-man. His movements became more sinister towards the end, more reminiscent of the original lizard/sorcerer, and Arthur realised that their show was going to be a hit. It wasn't a story of romance, it was a story of warning. Mithian's character was probably in for the same treacherous shit the next day, only this time she'd be even more blindsided because she thought the faerie loved her. Morgana and Gwen had managed to turn the fanciful story into something that was already burrowing into Arthur's mind in a very unsettling way and it was going to be a _hit_.

Merlin brought the ballet to a close by pretending his arm was the lizard's tail and slowly, creepily sweeping it around, suggesting that instead of sleeping he was going to stay up all night in anticipation of his plans for the poor teacher in the morning. He was still sweeping his arm around when the music ended and the curtain jerked shut.

Arthur led the orchestra in a round of applause, and grinned when the curtain opened back up to reveal all the dancers walking on stage and also clapping.

"Quiet down, quiet down," Morgana instructed, suddenly appearing next to Arthur. He stepped off the podium to give her the spotlight. "That was fantastic work, everybody - truly. Merlin, your improvisation at the end was divine and Gwen will work with you more on it next week. Let's all take a thirty-minute break and meet back here to workshop." She clapped her hands once to signify that she was done, and the dancers wandered off backstage again.

Arthur told most of the orchestra to go home, only asking for one or two players of the most featured instruments to stay and help them through the rest of the afternoon's rehearsal. When people started packing up, Arthur left Leon to reset the music on the podium and went to talk to Gwaine, who was adjusting the height of his hi-hat.

"I liked the way you completely missed the end of the second act," Arthur said by way of greeting.

Gwaine laughed and mimed stabbing himself in the heart with a drumstick. "Your words are like poison, Pendragon."

Arthur gave Gwaine a lopsided smile to let his friend know he was mostly kidding, but he still waited for a proper response.

"Got a bit distracted thinking about all those lovely scantily-clad dancers above me," Gwaine explained with a wicked grin. "How was the new principal?"

"He seems quite capable," Arthur said mildly.

Gwaine raised his eyebrows but apparently decided not to comment. "Fancy a trip to the vending machines?"

"No, thanks, I'm going to chat with Gwen."

"You know we have a thirty-minute break, right? You know that 'break' means 'time when you don't have to work,' right?"

Arthur rolled his eyes but clapped Gwaine on the shoulder before letting himself out of the pit. Gwen was still sitting where she had been during the run-through, watching back the rehearsal Morgana had filmed for her and writing something in her sketchbook.

"Was all that really improvised?" he asked without preamble, settling down in the row behind her and hooking his chin over the back of the seat next to hers.

"Mhm."

Arthur watched her writing for a moment before tugging on a curl that had escaped from her bun. "But you'd worked on the concept together?"

Gwen shook her head and paused the video before starting to doodle a spiral in the corner of the page. "Just the general ending, that he turns into a lizard to watch over her. Apparently Merlin thinks it would be better if the ending is more nefarious, and I'm inclined to agree. Or… at the very least it should be ambiguous." She leaned over a bit to kiss his temple. "What do you think?"

"I think you might have hired a genius," Arthur said gravely.

Gwen chuckled. "Well, we knew that, already. Seems his genius is multifaceted, though, which is a nice bonus."

"How exactly did we snag him?"

Gwen turned the page in her notebook and jotted down a few thoughts before answering him. "He wanted a change of pace. We're up-and-coming in a rule-breaking, trend-setting sort of way, and he thought this would be a good place to make a name for himself."

"So he's just using us for fame and fortune and in a few years he'll leave us for someone younger and better-looking?"

"Probably." Gwen started up the video on her phone again.

Arthur smiled and kissed her temple as he stood. "Can I get you anything?"

"Would you mind just getting me my bag, actually?" she asked, looking up. "I've got more water and a few granola bars in there, but I'm afraid to get up and lose my train of thought."

"'Course," Arthur agreed. "Where is it?"

"Stage right, in the wings. I think I left it by the cooler."

Arthur tugged her loose curl again before heading towards the stage in search of her bag. He hoisted himself onto the stage and checked the wings. Gwen's bag was propped up against the water cooler, but stretching in front of the water cooler in an alarming way was Merlin.

Merlin was bent over sideways, his torso parallel with the floor, and holding onto the back of a chair for balance. He was standing on one leg, and his other leg was sticking straight up in the air. Elena was standing behind him, holding his leg up and making sure it was properly aligned.

"That is - horrifying," Arthur said before he could stop himself. His groin hurt just from watching.

Merlin looked up with a frown, but Elena just laughed at him. "Good to see you, too," she teased. She carefully brought Merlin's leg back down to a normal position and then nearly tripped over the chair on her way over to hug Arthur.

Arthur squeezed her tightly. "How've you been?"

"Great! Haven't seen you around the studios yet - I thought maybe you were getting too good for us." She was smiling, as she always was, but her German accent still made her statement seem harsher than she had meant it.

"I am too good for you," Arthur said seriously, but with a wink. He glanced over at Merlin and saw that the man had continued stretching and wasn't paying them any attention. "Far too good," Arthur said lowly.

Elena tsk'ed him. "Have you seen Gwaine?"

"He was going to the vending machines," Arthur responded without thinking. "Wait, how do you know Gwaine?"

Elena gave him a pitying look. "We've both worked here for years, Arthur. Our paths were bound to cross someday."

"You're not…"

Elena raised her eyebrows. "So what if we are?"

Arthur shrugged, trying to figure out if he really minded or was just surprised. "He's just not… your type, I thought."

"Why, because he's not you?"

Arthur scoffed and looked over at Merlin again. He was doing the splits on the floor behind the chair, clearly trying to appear as if he weren't eavesdropping.

"You're sweet, Arthur," Elena said, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. "But Gwaine is exactly my type. I was never with you for love." She gave him a knowing smile before walking away.

"Me, neither," Arthur mumbled. He wished Elena had at least introduced him properly to Merlin before leaving them alone together so awkwardly. Then again, Elena rarely did anything without an element of awkwardness; that's what Arthur found so endearing about her.

Arthur stood still where he was for a moment, watching Merlin ease out of the split, place the soles of his feet together, and lean over his legs until his chest was practically flat on the floor. He cleared his throat quietly, but Merlin didn't look up, so Arthur grabbed Gwen's bag quickly and left.

Sometimes it was hard to fit so many creative egos under one roof.

 **-x-**

Arthur spent the rest of the break trying to eat the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he'd hastily made himself that morning. He'd somehow forgotten how tiring joint rehearsal days were and he really wanted something heartier, or at least tastier.

When the dancers started making their way back on stage, Gwen finally got up from her spot in the audience and sought out Merlin. Merlin had returned from the break wearing a tight blue sleeveless shirt and black tights which were mostly covered by large pink and yellow knitted legwarmers. They chatted for a moment before Gwen pulled him to the side of the stage and ran her hand all the way down his front.

Arthur raised his eyebrows at the gesture, but Merlin just nodded in agreement with whatever Gwen had said and demonstrated a turn for her. Gwen shook her head, ran her hand down his front again, and then grabbed the inside of one of his thighs, lifting his leg to the side.

"You're drooling."

Arthur looked away from Gwen's manhandling of Merlin's lithe body and gave Leon a harsh glare. "I am… observing with interest."

Leon snickered.

"Shut up," Arthur mumbled under his breath. He glanced back at the stage and saw Merlin practising the turn again, this time to Gwen's approval.

Morgana clapped loudly a few times as she came on stage, getting everyone's attention. Arthur took his place at the podium again and tapped his baton against the wood to make sure his musicians were ready.

"We have a lot to work on," Morgana announced, no longer pretending she'd been happy with the morning's run-through. "For now we're going to work on the beginning and end of each act. Please, _please_ remember to follow-through on each step and gesture. Don't get sloppy. Don't get loose. It's important to work through the pain and the exhaustion, because you're going to feel this same way every day we perform."

Arthur turned to Leon, who was biting down a smile. Morgana always gave the most dramatic prep-talks.

"Places for the opening," Morgana instructed.

Everyone cleared off the stage except for Gwen and Merlin, who moved downstage right, far enough off to the side that they could continue working without interrupting the scene. Arthur let his gaze linger on them for a moment before raising his baton and counting off the start of the first act.

"Stop, stop," Morgana shouted almost immediately. Arthur gave his musicians an apologetic smile; it was likely to be a long afternoon. He set his baton down and waited for Morgana to give her corrections before starting the piece over again, this time conducting only with his hands.

It took almost half an hour to get through the first five minutes of the ballet. When Morgana finally allowed them to move on to the end of the act instead, Arthur sent the rest of his musicians home. He and Leon took turns on the piano during the rest of the rehearsal, switching every time Morgana stopped the dancers for more than a minute or two.

Arthur spent the time he wasn't playing watching Gwen and Merlin, who continued to practise by themselves as Merlin hadn't been in any of the chosen scenes so far. Gwen's choreographic direction was obvious, but the _je ne sais quoi_ about the show that Arthur had noticed that morning was revealing itself to be Merlin's influence over the movement and story. The more Arthur watched, the more baffled he became. Merlin was too thin to be classically strong, but too muscular to have the more popular modern and slight figure. He was too long to be graceful, but somehow he was. His face was too angular to be beautiful, but somehow it was. He was too _too_ to be a star, but he clearly was.

Gwen took over Morgana's duties to run through the fourth act scenes, which Merlin was in, so Morgana joined Arthur and Leon in the pit. Leon played through the beginning, and Arthur and Morgana leaned against the pit railing, watching Merlin, Mordred, Mithian, and a few other dancers work through the fight scene.

"It's freezing in here," Morgana complained. "They're all so stiff."

"Nothing a good finger-banging wouldn't fix."

Morgana shoved Arthur so hard that he fell into the grand piano and it rolled away from Leon, forcing him to stop playing.

"You're so fucking crass," Morgana spat at him before leaving the pit to sit in the audience.

Leon laughed openly as he pulled the piano back into position.

"Sorry," Arthur called up to the dancers and Gwen.

Gwen rolled her eyes, but she was smiling so Arthur didn't feel too bad. Most of the dancers were laughing as well, except for Merlin who was pulling off his legwarmers.

They managed to get through the rest of the fight scene without too much trouble, and then the last scene to go through was Merlin's transformation into a lizard. Arthur reluctantly took his place at the piano, angling his seat so he'd have the best view of the stage while still being able to reach the keys.

Gwen stood downstage centre and let Merlin dance the full scene all the way through without stopping him. Arthur watched as much as he could, trying but failing to find something in Merlin's performance that was displeasing.

"Good," Gwen said when Merlin and the music were finished. She gave Merlin a long look as he stood to the side of the stage, hands on his hips, panting harshly. "Let's leave it at that, actually. We'll keep working on it together."

Merlin nodded and lifted up his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face.

"Break?" Gwen asked, looking over her shoulder at Morgana. Morgana agreed so Gwen announced that everyone should go get a drink of water and come back to the stage in five minutes.

"Having a good time?" she asked, sitting down on the edge of the stage and dangling her legs into the pit. Arthur went over and held out his arms. Gwen laughed and slipped off the edge, letting Arthur grab her waist and lower her to the floor of the pit.

"I'm having a great time," Arthur deadpanned.

Gwen pushed his hair out of his face. "I think the rest of the afternoon will be more of the same. You can go, if you want."

"And leave Leon to do all the dirty work?" Arthur asked, pretending to be offended that she would suggest he'd actually agree to such a thing.

"I don't mind," Leon offered.

Arthur pursed his lips, debating his options. He knew he wasn't needed, but the job wasn't really appropriate for Leon, either. Neither of them were rehearsal pianists.

"Gwen?" Arthur looked up to see Merlin standing on the edge of the stage, looking down at them all. "May I borrow you?"

His voice was low and sort of melodious, which surprised Arthur for some reason.

"Yes - oh! Have you met Arthur and Leon yet?"

Merlin shook his head and then lowered himself into the pit. He nodded at Arthur and Leon but didn't offer a smile.

"This is Merlin," Gwen said unnecessarily. "Our new principal, as I'm sure you've guessed. Merlin, this is Arthur, he's our Music Director, and Leon, his Associate Conductor."

Merlin shook their hands and gave Leon a warm smile but kept his face neutral for Arthur. Arthur didn't know what it was between them that was making this so weird, but he didn't like it. He didn't need Merlin to care about him, but he held an important role in the company and he did need Merlin to at least pretend to respect him.

"Morgana says we need to go back to the first act after the break," Merlin explained, turning back to Gwen. "Do you want to keep working on the ending?"

"No, I need to help Morgana. You can head out, actually. The first two acts need a lot more work than the rest so I'll just keep us focused on that for the rest of the day. Come find me when you get here on Monday morning."

Merlin nodded and kissed her on the cheek before leaving.

"Are you sure you want to stay?" Arthur asked Leon, suddenly feeling ready to go home, find proper food, and get his weekend started.

Leon nodded so Arthur excused himself. He collected his things from his office, pausing only to write a quick to-do list for the next week, and left. He walked the few short blocks to the nearest tube stop and found Merlin waiting on the same platform. They made brief eye contact and Arthur almost walked over to introduce himself properly and to try to build some sort of professional friendship, but then Merlin turned away and slipped on headphones.

Arthur scoffed and walked to the far end of the platform to ensure he and Merlin wouldn't ride home in the same car.

 **-x-**

 **4 Weeks to Premiere**

The week following the first joint rehearsal, Arthur spent each afternoon in the studios watching the dancers rehearse. On Monday and Tuesday, he watched Morgana directing the corps de ballet through the larger group scenes, such as the opening classroom scene and some of the enchanted swamp scenes.

On Wednesday, Arthur sat through a full rehearsal with Gwen that covered each scene except Merlin's final transformation. He picked up on the subtleties of the movements, jotting down ideas in his notebook for when and how the orchestra should adjust its tempo or mood based on what Gwen was trying to do with the story.

By Thursday, Arthur didn't have any more excuses to avoid the principals' rehearsal. He took a seat behind the rehearsal pianist, trying to put as much physical and emotional space between him and the dancers as possible.

Gwen spent a long time working with Merlin and Mordred on their fight scene, only asking Mithian to step in every once in a while to go over the beginning or end of the scene.

Arthur couldn't help but notice that Merlin didn't particularly seem to care for Mordred, either. He was perfectly friendly with both Gwen and Mithian, but he didn't spend any time making small talk with the other male dancer. Arthur found it strange, especially since Morgana's initial "warning" that Merlin was straight likely meant that he was gay.

Despite their lack of personal interaction, Merlin and Mordred definitely had a lot of chemistry as dance partners; they weren't afraid to get close to each other, at least.

As Arthur watched them go through the scene again and again, he started to notice a change each time Gwen had them start over and make it more "intense." By the end of the rehearsal, the scene had transformed from a fight scene between supposed good and evil to a fight scene between former lovers. In the final run-through, Merlin and Mordred were running their hands over each other's bodies in a lustful and regretful way, then flinging each other across the room with such anger that it couldn't have been anything other than a story of lost love.

Gwen dismissed the rehearsal after dishing out copious praise, and Arthur stayed behind to chat with the rehearsal pianist, discussing the scene's music. He hoped to stay long enough to miss all of the dancers leaving, but Merlin was still lingering in the studio by the time the pianist finally left.

"Was that okay?" Merlin asked quietly, sitting down in front of Gwen and stretching his legs out on either side. "You said 'intense,' but I thought, maybe…"

"No, I loved it," Gwen assured him without looking up from where she was scribbling in her notebook. She was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall of mirrors. "How did you get Mordred on the same page so quickly?"

"We were at dinner last night," Merlin explained, "talking about the faerie's change and we sort of… brainstormed it together. We didn't plan to do it today, though. It just sort of happened when you kept giving us the same note."

"Do you want to be a choreographer?" Gwen asked suddenly, looking up.

Merlin shrugged delicately. "Maybe, but right now I'm very happy to be a dancer. Especially when I get to work with choreographers like you," he added. "I think I like that part best - working with the choreographer to develop a new show, a new character. I don't think I could do it all on my own yet, but I like the creative partnership we have. Please tell me if I'm ever overstepping my boundaries."

Gwen smiled sweetly and gave one of his thighs a reassuring squeeze. "You've been perfect, Merlin. Don't worry your pretty little head."

Merlin laughed and slowly got to his feet. He glanced over at Arthur, his brow furrowed slightly, before collecting his things and leaving the studio.

Arthur sat himself next to Gwen, stretching his arms over his head and tapping his fingernails against the mirror.

"So, are you going to give him some sort of choreography credit?"

"No," Gwen said quietly, flipping through her notebook. "Story credit, maybe. But this sort of thing isn't that unusual for new ballets. That's why you hear of dancers 'creating' roles in original pieces. There's a lot of collaboration." She looked up at Arthur with a smile. "To be honest, I wish more of our dancers took that much initiative and ownership."

"Looks like he's having an influence on Mordred, at least," Arthur said, lowering his arms. "I don't understand how they could have brainstormed this love story over dinner. They looked like they were barely tolerating each other all afternoon."

Gwen chuckled. "I think they're sleeping with each other. I guess they want to hide it and for some reason they've decided the best way to do that is not to talk to each other at work."

Arthur wasn't sure why, but he was somewhat disappointed to hear that; the idea of Merlin and Mordred having a secret affair bothered him.

After bidding farewell to Gwen, Arthur retreated to his office. He spent some time marking up his copy of the score, playing various scenes over in his head. He'd forgotten how much he enjoyed watching the dance rehearsals. Mithian had made it easy on him, too, by acting as if nothing bad had happened between them. She'd hugged him hello the first time he was at one of her rehearsals and spoke with him during her breaks, making it clear she didn't harbour any negative feelings and putting Arthur at ease with his presence in the dancers' space.

When Arthur was satisfied with the notes he'd made, he slipped the music into a drawer in his desk and pulled out another score, this one handwritten. He turned to a blank page, took out a pencil, and tapped its eraser on the empty staves a few times.

"Bum bum dah daaah, bum de-da-dah-daaah bum-da-da-dum. Bum-da-da-dum." Arthur sang a few notes to himself under his breath before jotting them down.

He flipped back to the first page of his composition and took out his phone to record himself. He sang the notes lightly, embellishing where it felt right and changing things as he went along. Eventually he hit the end of his draft but continued singing and humming, trying to get the music in his head to match up with the feeling in his chest.

Arthur may have hated the pressure hanging over him due to the deal with his father, but he did love composing, even though it wasn't often that he was so inspired. He worked hard and had to put most of his creative energy towards other people's music and other people's projects. In the past, he'd gone entire seasons without even trying to write.

The last time he'd looked at this score was towards the middle of his relationship with Mithian, when he'd started feeling that he might be falling in love for the first time. He'd spent days sitting at the piano in his flat, doing his best to translate his nervous, scattered, swooping emotions into sound. He hadn't ever gotten it quite right, though, perhaps because he hadn't truly been in love.

Something about the past few days had brought him back to composing. Maybe it was all the excitement about the new ballet or the collaborative spirit in the studios. Arthur was happy with whatever the explanation was, although he was going to deny it had anything to do with how annoyingly beautiful Merlin's dancing was.

After an hour or so of singing and humming, listening back to the recording of his off-key voice, and trying to write out his ideas, Arthur headed home.

 **-x-**

The joint rehearsal on Friday was much better than the previous week's had been. Arthur hadn't even really noticed all the issues with the first run-through until he got to see all of the improvements that had been made over the course of the week. The transitions were tighter, the story more defined, and the dancers more sure.

Everything was going smoothly so far. They were running through each scene twice, with time for Gwen and Arthur to give their notes before the second time. The orchestra was in high spirits - they definitely preferred this sort of repetition to random starts and stops.

It wasn't until the beginning of the fourth act, during the fight, that Arthur had to cut off the orchestra before the scene ended. Merlin and Mordred had been in the middle of their intimate pas de deux when Merlin had suddenly stopped dancing. He murmured something to Mordred before walking downstage, forcing Arthur to stop conducting when it became clear he wasn't going to pick up where he'd left off.

"Sorry," Merlin said when there was silence in the pit, his expression not remotely sorry. "Could we have it a little faster, please?"

Arthur could hear Leon laughing next to him, and Morgana and Gwen laughing from their spot in the audience. Arthur didn't think it was funny. Dancers weren't supposed to make demands like that.

"Good idea, Merlin," Gwen called out encouragingly.

Arthur glared at her over his shoulder before turning back to the orchestra. He gave them a slightly faster count and watched as Merlin and Mordred did a noticeably better job with the new tempo. It frustrated Arthur that he hadn't even been given the chance to notice the discord between the dancers and the music and to adjust it himself. Merlin had just stopped the second he felt something off and dictated the change he wanted. Arthur hated pulling rank, but he was the Music Director and this was his job. And if he had ended up missing it completely, it would have fallen to Gwen or Morgana to request the change.

The rest of the rehearsal went according to plan, but Arthur was still in a bad mood when he left. He stopped by his office on his way out to grab his notebooks, hoping to spend some time that weekend writing music so he wouldn't have to lie to his father for once. After a minute or two of debate, he ended up leaving his compositions there. Merlin may have been the most wonderful dancer Arthur had seen in a while, but he was an arrogant fool and _that_ was not inspirational.

 **-x-**

 **3 Weeks to Premiere**

Arthur stopped by the principals' rehearsal on Monday afternoon to check in with Morgana on her plans for that week's joint rehearsal on Friday. He found Morgana sitting with the pianist as Gwen took Mithian, Mordred, and Merlin through some of the enchanted swamp scenes. Morgana looked like she was struggling not to take control over the rehearsal and to let Gwen do her job.

"No," Gwen was saying, her arms crossed as she stepped between Merlin and Mithian. "Merlin, it needs to be less - less…"

"Less sexy," Morgana called out.

Gwen nodded. "Right, because it's not real. It needs to be just enough for her to be able to think it's real, but it should be really a _lot_ less than what you end up doing with Mordred during the fight."

"I can be more over the top," Mithian offered. "Make it really obvious I'm just projecting so the point gets across without him having to put too much into it."

"Maybe." Gwen glanced at the floor for a long moment and Arthur, still lingering in the doorway, could practically see the wheels turning in her mind as she re-imagined the scene.

"I'll tone it down," Merlin said quietly. "I can do it more… more gently."

"Yeah, let's do just your part for a bit. Try to lead with your shoulders instead of your hips and we'll see where that gets us." Gwen gestured to the pianist as Mithian and Mordred moved to the side of the room to watch Merlin.

Arthur watched curiously, amazed that a slight shift in Merlin's posture changed the mood from seductive to sweet and protective so easily. Gwen had him run through the scene twice more before she was satisfied, and then she started focusing on Mithian's part instead.

Merlin joined Mordred on the side of the room and Arthur immediately noticed that they seemed to have changed tactics regarding how they presented their relationship to the public. They were openly affectionate with each other; Mordred even gave Merlin a bit of a back massage as they watched Mithian adjust her character.

After Mithian went through the steps once and Gwen started to give her some more notes, Morgana finally stood up from the piano bench and headed towards Arthur. Halfway over, she changed her mind and went to talk to Merlin and Mordred instead.

Arthur checked his watch and looked back up to see Morgana gesturing for him to join their small group.

"I just came to talk about Friday," he explained as he approached.

"We have all week to figure that out," Morgana said dismissively. "How does it look?"

Arthur glanced at Merlin and saw that he was looking away, clearly disinterested in any critique Arthur had to offer. "It's fine," he said shortly, not wanting to dole out praise to such ungrateful ears. "It's shaping up," he added when he saw Morgana frowning.

There was an awkward moment of silence as Morgana rolled her eyes and turned to watch Gwen and Mithian. Arthur cleared his throat and was about to leave when Mordred caught his eye.

"How was your weekend?" he asked, smiling brightly.

"Good," Arthur replied, trying to think of anything specific he'd done besides drink wine, watch old movies, and play his piano. "I did a bit of reading… not much else. How was yours?"

"Great, actually. Merlin and I went on a few brewery tours. Oh, I wanted to ask if you could recommend any good wineries to visit. Arthur has a fantastic wine collection," Mordred explained to Merlin, who still looked as if he were barely paying attention.

"I have a friend who works at a winery nearby," Arthur said quietly. "I'll try to see if I can get you a discount to a tour or tasting class or something."

"Thanks, mate." Mordred clapped Arthur on the shoulder. "Merlin hasn't found a local wine he fancies yet. I told him if he hasn't done it by the time the show closes he'll definitely find something good at your place."

Arthur nodded vaguely, wondering if he should really host the usual wrap party at his flat this time, or if Merlin would even show up to it. He gave Merlin a few seconds to make eye contact so he could ask about his wine preferences, but Merlin simply smiled at Mordred and then looked back out at Mithian and Gwen.

Arthur walked out without saying goodbye, frustrated that Merlin's pompousness had continued into another week.

 **-x-**

For the rest of the week, Arthur avoided the dancers' rehearsals and focused on his orchestra, instead. He started running them through pieces they'd be playing later in the season to keep them from getting bored, and let Leon give most of the notes during their rehearsals. It was less than a month away from the opening night of the new ballet, and Arthur was finally starting to feel settled in.

On Thursday night, he stayed late in his office trying to force something creative and original to happen in his brain. He messed around with the composing software on his computer, experimenting with different keys, but nothing he did was satisfying.

He knew he was running out of time. Morgana and Gwen would probably need several months to work out a story and the choreography once he finished his original piece for the next fall season, and he wanted to give them the time they'd need to be successful. He hated deadlines, though; they didn't inspire anything except procrastination.

Eventually, when his stomach started growling, Arthur gave up on writing and went in search of Morgana, in case she wanted to grab a bite with him. She wasn't in her office so he poked his head into some of the dance studios to see if she was working with Gwen.

He didn't find Morgana, or Gwen, but he did find Merlin practising alone in one of the studios. There wasn't any music playing, but that didn't seem to matter. Merlin was dancing passionately to nothing but the sounds in his own head. When Arthur first came into the room, he was on the floor, rolling around in a strangely graceful way. He kept lifting himself, as if going to do a series of push-ups, and then springing into the air and coming back down, perfectly horizontal.

It looked painful, and it wasn't any choreography Arthur recognized from the show, but after a few different series of jumps, he finally got to his feet and paused, staring at his reflection in the mirrors that lined one wall of the studio. His chest, bare and glistening with sweat, was heaving from the exertion, but he only let himself rest for a moment. In a flash of movement, he had run to the side of the room and was suddenly leaping and twirling. It looked very much like he was trying to touch the ceiling, but his movements on the ground never broke out of that effortless beauty, either.

After a minute or two, Merlin finally noticed Arthur watching him. He stopped dancing immediately and put his hands on his hips, waiting for Arthur to explain the intrusion as he caught his breath.

"Have you seen Morgana?" Arthur asked, his voice a little too loud in the empty room.

"She went home a while ago."

Arthur nodded and left without saying anything else. He pulled his mobile out of his pocket and called the Chinese restaurant around the corner to deliver some food for him. Then, without putting too much thought as to _why_ his creative urge was suddenly back, he went back up to his office and started composing on his computer again.

 **-x-**

The next day's joint rehearsal was frustrating because Morgana seemed to have decided that everyone was too tired and that no one was putting in enough effort. She kept coming up behind Arthur and shouting at the dancers in time with his conducting.

"ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX," she screeched in Arthur's ear, leaning over the partition between the pit and the house seats. "ONE, TWO -"

"Shut, the, fuck, up," Arthur called back at her.

Leon hid his laughter behind his notebook.

"Stop!" Gwen called from her seat a few rows behind them, attempting to diffuse the situation.

Arthur set his baton down, bringing the music to a halt, and turned to glare at his sister.

"They need to _listen_ ," Morgana said, immediately jumping to defend herself.

"Yes, but you're doing that right in my ear," Arthur said, trying to keep his voice low so the whole company wouldn't have to overhear their argument.

Morgana opened her mouth to retort but then seemed to change her mind. She narrowed her eyes at him rather harshly before turning away and taking her seat next to Gwen.

"We need to do that last sequence again," Gwen announced. "Watch your arms, Merlin. And…" she looked down at her notebook. "Mordred, you need to remember to support Mithian on that third turn. Also try not kick her when you're heading back to the trees."

Mordred grinned and gave her a thumbs up.

"Go again, please," she called, giving Arthur his cue to start the music again.

Gwen had them run through that same scene twice more before she called for an hour-long break, sensing that everyone was a little too on edge to continue.

Arthur stayed in the pit as the rest of the company cleared out. He pulled his leftovers from the previous night out of his bag and ate them in the first violinist's chair, not bothering to heat it up.

As he ate, he flipped through Leon's notebook and made some notes in his copy of the score, trying to find the missing piece that would suddenly shake things back into order, even though he knew that the only thing to do on a day like this was to just wait it out and try again the next day. Sometimes individual dancers or musicians had a bad day, and sometimes the whole company seemed to collectively wake up on the wrong side of the bed; he'd seen it before and he'd see it again, but that didn't make it any easier to live through.

When he was certain he'd made all the notes he could, he switched chairs so that he was sitting directly under the edge of centre stage. He gazed out at the empty seats and allowed himself to remember the last time he'd played in front of an audience. He loved conducting and leading an orchestra, but some days, especially days like this, he missed _not_ having so much responsibility. Some days he wanted to turn back the clock until he was in an ensemble, under someone else's guidance, and only responsible for playing his French horn the best he could.

"Gwaine and I are having a get together at his place next week. Do you want to come?"

Arthur started slightly in his chair at the sound of Elena's voice filtering down from the stage. He was about to get up and announce himself when he heard Merlin reply.

"Maybe - who else will be there?"

"Just a few other dancers and musicians. It won't be anything big, maybe 10-ish people. I think Mithian is bringing her famous apple crisp. I tried to get Arthur to bring some wine over, but he said he wanted to save it for the wrap party."

"What's he bringing instead?"

"Nothing, I couldn't convince him to come. I think he feels weird about being around me and Gwaine."

Arthur crossed his arms and sighed. He didn't feel weird about it, he just didn't want to go. He'd been to enough of Gwaine's 'get togethers' to know that even 10-ish people could cause some damage, if only to their livers.

He couldn't help but thinking that he should have agreed to go, anyway, especially now that Merlin might be in attendance. Maybe a more casual setting was all Merlin needed to warm up to him, and then they could move past this strange _thing_ between them that made everything so unpleasant.

"So you and Arthur…" Merlin trailed off.

"Arthur and half the company," Elena confirmed, laughing. "He can be hard to resist."

"Doesn't that seem…" Merlin left the end of his sentence hanging, again.

"I don't mean he forces anyone," Elena said quickly. "He's very kind and _very_ handsome."

"He's a Director," Merlin protested. "He's abusing his power to sleep with any dancer he wants and if they say no he'll probably have them kicked out. I've seen it before."

Arthur almost revealed himself again, unwilling to let anyone speak about him that way. He wasn't abusing his power and he would never sack anyone for refusing to sleep with him. He'd been turned down by dancers before and had never been so hurt that he'd ruined their careers over it. The worst he'd ever done was skip a rehearsal after he'd fallen a little too hard for a previous principal, Vivian, and she'd revealed a little too late that she already had a boyfriend. And, really, Arthur missing that rehearsal had only reflected poorly on him, not on her. She'd left the company a few months later because she'd been offered a position at the New York City Ballet, her dream company, and not because of Arthur. In the end, they'd even managed to become friends.

But Merlin - Merlin was too quick to judge. Arthur guessed Merlin had heard rumours of his reputation and decided before they'd even met that Arthur wasn't worth liking. It made Arthur's blood boil, but he wasn't going to dignify that sort of attitude by revealing himself and trying to defend his character. Merlin may have been enormously talented, and even more attractive, but he didn't seem worth liking himself, and Arthur wasn't going to stoop to his level.

"He's really not that bad," Elena said after a moment. "He would never do that to someone. Really, he's very nice. We simply got to know each other in rehearsals and he asked me out for dinner one night and - and I could have said no at any point. I just didn't want to. It didn't turn into anything else so it kind of fizzled out after a few weeks and… and that was that. We're friends and he still respects me and I still respect him. He might be a horny, horny man in power, but ultimately he's a good guy."

Arthur rolled his eyes but still found himself smiling.

"Maybe he should widen his dating pool to people outside of the company," Merlin said, sounding unconvinced.

"Maybe," Elena conceded, "but it's not like any of us have the time to go out and meet people. Arthur works really hard… we all do. I'm dating Gwaine and that's the farthest 'outside of the company' I've been in a long time."

"Sounds like a very incestuous company."

Elena snorted. "Says the man who started sleeping with the other male lead as soon as he got here."

"What?" Merlin asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"You and Mordred," Elena explained, and Arthur could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "You don't hide it very well."

"I'm not sleeping with Mordred," Merlin said quietly. "Why would you think that?"

"Because you're all over each other in rehearsals and you hang out every weekend."

"We're friends," Merlin explained, laughing slightly. "I've never lived in London before so he's been showing me around and trying to make me feel welcome."

There was a long pause and Arthur considered coming out from his hiding place to see if they'd gone.

Merlin suddenly said something in German and Arthur frowned, wondering how many languages he spoke.

Elena responded in German, cackling.

Merlin said something else in German and then added, in English, "Now we're just… just friends."

"There's a _lot_ of sexual tension for being 'just friends,' though."

"Because it's needed for the show. And also it was _really_ good sex, but that's it, honestly."

Elena laughed. "You're just as bad as Arthur, you hypocrite."

"I'm not," Merlin insisted. "Mordred's in the same position I am. No one was abusing any power. We were just… having a bit of fun. There's no consequences of us fooling around. Arthur's only looking out for himself."

"He's not. He's the one who got Gwen promoted to Resident Choreographer."

"How's that, did he make her sleep with him?"

Arthur heard a smack and bit down a laugh at the thought that Elena had hit Merlin for that comment.

"No, they've never slept together. He just saw how talented she was and really advocated for her until Morgana took the hint."

"I'm sure Morgana would have done it on her own."

"Maybe," Elena said sceptically. "Not as soon, though. Everyone knows it was Arthur who convinced her to do it. Obviously she doesn't regret the choice, but I know for a fact she was considering hiring someone from another company until Arthur made her reconsider."

There was another long silence and Arthur checked his watch. There were only fifteen minutes left in their break; other people were going to start coming back in at any moment.

"You just want to hate him because you think he's pretty," Elena teased.

Merlin scoffed. "Whatever. Help me warm back up?"

Arthur heard them shuffling off stage again and finally came out from under the stage. He saw Morgana standing on the side of the stage, sipping at what looked like a milkshake. She raised her eyebrows at him and Arthur flushed and headed to the loo, hoping no one else had witnessed his eavesdropping.

 **-x-**

 **2 Weeks to Premiere**

Monday was the first joint rehearsal for two shorter ballets the company would be performing after the week-long premiere of Gwen's original piece. These ballets were part of the company's repertoire, which mean that there was nothing particularly new to practise. A small handful of the dancers had never done these pieces before, but they'd been rehearsing for weeks and were already blending in by the joint rehearsal.

The cast was different with the exception of a few members of the corps, and Arthur enjoyed watching his other friends dance above him for the first time in several months, but it was hard not to miss Merlin and the others. These older shows were good - great, even, under Morgana's gaze - but Gwen's ballet was _special_ , not least of all because it was still so new.

During the run-through of the first show, Arthur let himself get lost in the music more than he had at any of the joint rehearsals so far; during the second, Arthur sat next to the podium and let Leon conduct instead.

The joint rehearsal on Friday for Gwen's ballet went much more smoothly than it had the previous week, to everyone's relief. Gwen had them run through the whole ballet in the morning, which they hadn't done since the very first joint rehearsal. This was the first time there was anything other than just the dance and the music, though. Some of the dancers were wearing bits and pieces of their costumes, and there were some bare bones of the set lining the stage as well. Most noticeable, though, was the lighting. Gwen's boyfriend, Lance, was the company's lighting designer and he'd been in and out of both the dance and orchestra rehearsals all week to prepare for his first appearance at the joint rehearsal.

The lighting design wasn't nearly complete, and Arthur noticed it cutting out completely a few times, defaulting to the usual harsh fluorescents as Lance gave his crew instructions over a walkie-talkie. The general idea was evident, though, especially in the swamp scenes.

Gwen only made the morning run-through stop once, during the climactic fight scene. At the beginning and end of the fight, the corps was on stage as well, all representing different species of woodland creatures. At various times during the fight, the corps would do the same choreography as Merlin and Mordred, making it seem as if the whole swamp was caught up in their tumultuous relationship.

The problem was that, while Merlin and Mordred were more than capable of keeping up with the face-paced tempo of the music, some of the other dancers were visibly struggling with it. The choreography lost its synchronicity easily, but Arthur didn't dare slow down because he knew Merlin would protest right away. Even so, Merlin and Mordred kept trying to adjust their own speed in an attempt to keep everyone moving together.

"Stop, please!" Gwen called when it finally became too much to be allowed.

Arthur cut off the music and looked up to see Merlin stopping mid-jump. He landed effortlessly on his feet and rested both of his arms on the top of his head. He looked agitated, clearly wanting to _keep moving_. Arthur noticed for the first time how strange he looked when standing still, with all of that energy bubbling just beneath the surface. All of his long limbs and sharp angles suddenly looked awkward, whereas he always looked nothing short of gorgeous in motion.

"We're going to work on this scene more next week," Gwen said from her usual seat in the house. Arthur forced himself to look away from Merlin and pay attention. "In the meantime, Merlin and Mordred, you should only worry about each other. You're incredibly in sync with each other and you don't need to worry about anything other than the music. Is it a good pace for you?"

Merlin and Mordred both nodded.

"Great. Keep your eyes on each other and we'll worry about the corps next week, alright?"

The two men nodded again and Gwen gestured for Arthur to start the music again. He played all the way through the end, focusing on the principal dancers and their needs, trusting that Gwen would get the rest of the corps in shape before opening night.

Arthur dismissed his musicians for lunch when the morning's run-through was finished, knowing Gwen and Morgana were going to spend a while giving out notes and corrections to the dancers before calling for an official break.

As Gwen and Morgana took to the stage, Arthur chatted with Leon. They quickly ran out of work-related things to say, and then Leon started asking Arthur about his weekend plans.

The truth was that Arthur had spent most of his weekends over the past month or so working. He spent hours listening to recordings of various compositions he hoped to conduct one day, playing his own interpretations on the piano in his flat, and marking up the scores as he vaguely imagined the choreography that Gwen or Morgana would come up with for the difference pieces. He read biographies and auto-biographies of composers, trying to decipher the meaning of the music and anticipating how each subtlety could be brought out under his direction.

This was how he'd spent many weekends over the years since he and Morgana had founded the company. Sometimes he'd watch football or visit wineries or take trips out to the country to visit his father, but mostly he stayed in and obsessed over his music.

He didn't like to think of it that way, though. He never had, until he'd met Mithian and she took the piss out of him because of his _obsession_. To Arthur, it was just a passion. More importantly, he felt it was all necessary in order to become a composer himself. He needed to understand the music more deeply than anyone else in the orchestra if he ever hoped to make music of his own that was worth being played.

While he had been dating Mithian, he had spent plenty of weekends at her flat instead of his, watching movies or cooking with her or letting her drag him around on shopping errands or to various museums. It had been fun - wonderful, even - but he found it hard to do those kinds of things on his own. It was easier to fall back into his old habits and bury himself in work.

Still, he knew that other people found this sort of behaviour odd at best, and troubling at worst, so he tended to keep it to himself.

"I don't have any plans," he told Leon. "What about you?"

"I'm debating going over Gwaine's tonight. Are you going?"

Arthur shrugged. "Probably not. Last time nearly killed me and I'm not looking to re-live that any time soon."

Leon laughed. "Fair enough."

Eventually Gwen dismissed the dancers for lunch and Arthur headed out with Leon to find food nearby. When everyone came back, Gwen had them run through the whole show again. This rehearsal was almost identical to the one from that morning, down to the corps being too slow to stay in sync with Merlin and Mordred at the end, but the lighting was much better. Lance and his team had apparently worked through the lunch break because they didn't default once and the stage was starting to look distinctly swamp-like, even without the set pieces being painted green yet.

Arthur sent the orchestra home for the day after the show had been run all the way through again, but stayed behind with Leon to play the piano as Gwen and Morgana directed the corps through a few more scenes.

After another two hours, Morgana finally dismissed the company for the day. Arthur saw Elena hanging around in the wings, reminding people about her and Gwaine's party. He shooed Leon off for the night and started gathering his things.

"Are you going to this 'get together' at Gwaine's?"

Arthur turned to see Gwen leaning over the partition to talk to him.

"No. I've learned my lesson."

Gwen laughed. "At least he's doing it on a weekend, finally. We won't have to deal with the aftermath this time."

"Thank God for small miracles." Arthur took another minute to finish packing up, and when he turned back around, Gwen was chatting with Merlin, who already looked ready to leave.

"No, I'm not going," she was saying with a guilty smile. "You should go, though. You'll have fun."

"Everyone keeps telling me that, but for some reason I'm not sure I believe them."

"Gwaine's parties aren't for everyone," Arthur chimed in. "The only way to find out if they're for you is to try."

Merlin looked at Arthur and then back at Gwen, pursing his lips. Arthur sighed and made his way to the side of the pit to let himself out through the gate. He didn't know why he was still trying to be civil with Merlin; it was obviously a lost cause. When he made it back around to where Gwen and Merlin were standing, they were making dinner plans.

"We're thinking Italian," Gwen said to Arthur as she waved up to Lance in the technical booth. "Care to join?"

Arthur allowed himself a quick glance at Merlin, but, unsurprisingly, Merlin was looking away from him with a small frown. "No, thanks," Arthur said politely. "I've got some leftovers in my fridge, so I'm all set."

Gwen pouted adorably. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Arthur said after a moment, seeing Lance heading towards them. "You're welcome back to my place for drinks afterwards, though. Lance, too, of course."

Gwen's eyes lit up. "That is extremely tempting."

Arthur winked as he hoisted his bag over his shoulder; he knew how much Gwen loved even just looking at his wine collection. "Just text me if you decide to come over." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and waved at Lance as he left, hoping it was clear his invitation was for them only. He was pretty sure Merlin wouldn't come, anyway, even if he had been explicitly invited.

When he got home, Arthur jumped right into the shower to relax and have a wank. It had been almost two months since he'd had sex, and the more he thought about it the more he realized how sexually frustrated he was. And it was hard _not_ to think about it when he had to watch Mithian, Mordred, and especially Merlin play out their overtly sexual love triangle on stage.

He came twice before rinsing off a final time and stepping out of the shower. He pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, in case Gwen and Lance ended up coming over, and ate the leftover slices from the pizza he'd ordered the night before on his couch. He flipped through the channels on his telly a few times, but when he couldn't find anything that held his interest he put on an old movie instead.

Just before nine o'clock, his mobile buzzed with a text message.

 **From: Gwen**

 **Still want to share your wine? We can be there in 15 mins.**

 _Of course. Buzz when you get here._

Arthur replied quickly and left the movie running as he cleaned up his dishes from dinner and pulled out a few wine glasses. He opened up the closet that held his large wine collection and ran his fingers over a few labels, trying to decide which bottle he wanted to open.

His doorbell buzzed loudly and Arthur pressed the button that would unlock the front door without bothering to check who it was. He turned off the movie and a minute later there was a quiet knock on his door. He opened it to find Gwen and Merlin in the hall.

Gwen gave Arthur a tight hug as Merlin stepped into his flat. Arthur returned the hug helplessly, wanting to ask what the _hell_ Merlin was doing there, but knowing they'd be overheard. It didn't matter, anyway - Merlin was there and Arthur was going to have to play host as best he could.

"Where's Lance?" he asked instead.

"He headed to Gwaine's after dinner. We may have already had some wine at the restaurant," Gwen warned as Arthur closed the door.

"I would judge you if you hadn't," Arthur teased. He locked the door and turned to find her already standing in front of his collection, pulling out bottles to show to Merlin.

"What are you in the mood for?" Arthur asked, stepping up beside her to see the label on the bottle she was holding.

"Literally anything with alcohol," Gwen said, sliding the bottle back into place. "I don't care, you and Merlin can decide." She plopped down on his sofa and started rearranging his cushions

"What, er… what are _you_ in the mood for?" Arthur asked, turning to Merlin.

Surprisingly, Merlin held his gaze and gave him a small smile. "I like white wine," he said simply.

"Dry?"

Merlin shrugged and looked over the wide array of options. "Whatever you'd like to share is fine."

Arthur ran through his mental inventory. "Mordred said you were looking for a local wine, right?"

Merlin looked surprised that Arthur had remembered this. "Oh - yes. We went to that winery you suggested last weekend."

"How was it?" Arthur asked, taking down a bottle he'd bought from the same place.

"Pretty good."

Arthur smirked and put the bottle back. "That wasn't very convincing."

"I just prefer wines from home, I suppose."

"You're Danish, right?" Arthur stood on his tiptoes to reach the top shelf. He pulled out a bottle of Chardonnay he'd gotten in Copenhagen a few years before.

Merlin said something in a language Arthur didn't understand and grabbed the bottle out of his hands. "You have this?"

Arthur couldn't help but smile at how excited Merlin was. "Shall we open it?"

"Are you sure? You're not saving it?"

Arthur shook his head and took the bottle back. "Have a seat - I'll be back in a minute." He went into his kitchen to open the wine and pour three glasses. When he came back out, Merlin was sitting in his armchair, laughing at something that Gwen was saying. He passed out the glasses and sat down next to Gwen.

Gwen caught Arthur up on the anecdote she'd been sharing about the last time she'd travelled to another country, and the evening quickly turned into storytelling.

Merlin was easily the most travelled and had the best tales of strange foreign foods he'd eaten over the years. Arthur was surprised at how easy this was, now that Merlin had apparently decided that Arthur wasn't scum. Merlin turned out to be funny and charming, and he kept asking for more stories about Arthur's visit to Denmark.

"I think I've told you literally everything that happened while I was there," Arthur said before draining his glass. "It was only 3 days. More Chardonnay? I think there's a bit left."

Merlin nodded but Gwen declined, so Arthur went back into the kitchen to refill his and Merlin's glasses. When he came back out a minute later, Gwen was gone.

"She's not puking in my toilet, is she?" Arthur asked warily as he handed Merlin another glass.

"No, she… she left."

Arthur frowned at the door. "Why?"

"She said she had to go rescue Lance from Gwaine's party."

Arthur rolled his eyes and settled back down on the sofa. "Figures. I don't envy that job."

"Exactly what happens at Gwaine's parties?"

"Just an insane amount of drinking… an insanely stupid amount. The last time I went to one of his parties I was hungover for three days. Maybe Elena will keep things a bit more tame, but I don't care enough to find out."

Merlin chuckled and took a few large gulps of his wine. "Sounds fun."

Arthur stared down into his wine glass, suddenly feeling awkward at being left alone with Merlin. "Well, you're welcome to chase after her," he said, glancing back up at Merlin. "Don't feel like you have to stay to keep me company."

"I'd rather be here than there," Merlin said easily. "But I can leave if you want to go to bed."

Arthur found himself shaking his head. "No, I'm - I'm not tired. You're welcome to stay."

Merlin smiled as he took another sip. "Thanks… thanks for being a gracious host. I know I've been a bit, erm, cold, but I'm glad we're getting to know each other now."

Arthur took a long drink, debating if he wanted to get into how Merlin had been treating him.

"So, what were you doing before we so rudely interrupted your evening?" Merlin asked.

Arthur decided it wasn't worth arguing with Merlin about how mean he'd been; he seemed to be over it now and Arthur just wanted to move on.

"I was watching a movie. I didn't have very exciting plans for the night."

"Put it back on," Merlin suggested. "I'll watch it with you."

Arthur turned his telly back on as Merlin moved over to the sofa. Their knees knocked together as Merlin sat down, but neither of them shifted away. Arthur started the movie where he'd left off.

" _Star Wars_ ," Merlin said, sounding surprised.

Arthur finished off his Chardonnay, not sure how to respond.

"I always thought I'd make a good C3PO."

"What, like, for Halloween?" Arthur asked.

"No, I mean, if someone was ever clever enough to turn these films into a ballet."

Arthur laughed but quickly got sucked into a long discussion with Merlin about whether the films would even translate into a ballet, and whether new music would be needed.

 **-x-**

 **1 Week to Premiere**

After another Monday joint rehearsal for the other upcoming ballets, Arthur spent most of the next week sitting in on the dance rehearsals with Lance. He didn't have much to do to get ready for opening night anymore; his orchestra was ready and there weren't any more major adjustments needed to make sure the dancers were comfortable with the music. Mostly he distracted Lance from the lighting design work that still needed to be done, or bugged his dancer friends when they weren't working with Gwen.

Merlin had really turned his attitude towards Arthur around; he sought Arthur out during his breaks and even seemed to flirt with Arthur.

Arthur wasn't entirely sure about the flirtation, though. He still didn't know Merlin well enough to be certain that Merlin wasn't just being friendly. Merlin was Danish and while Arthur had never been friends with a Dane before, he'd worked with enough foreign dancers and musicians over the years to know that subtle cultural differences could lead to rather comic social misunderstandings.

On Thursday night, Arthur missed a call from Merlin on his mobile while he'd been working in his office. He listened to the message Merlin had left as he walked to the tube stop and kept getting weird looks from strangers because he couldn't stop laughing.

"Arthur, it's Merlin. I'm trying to buy wine and I realised we never got to talk about the local brands. I'm looking for more Chardonnay - is there anything you can recommend similar to the Danish wine we had last week? I feel like you're the only one who understands that not all of it tastes the same… oh, this looks promising… they always try to get you with pretty labels, don't they? Let's see… 2010, not bad. Why is there always a _story_ on the label? It can't be that complicated. Maybe I don't even want a Chardonnay - nothing I get is going to be as good as what I had at Arthur's… maybe… maybe I should just pick… the _dyreste_ brand and…" Merlin's message trailed off into what Arthur assumed to be Danish. After a minute or so of rambling that Arthur couldn't decipher at all, the message went quiet. Arthur almost put his phone away but then Merlin started talking again. "I completely forgot I was leaving a message, sorry," Merlin said, laughing through his apology. "I forgot I was even talking out loud. I hope I didn't say anything embarrassing. Um. I'm just going to buy a French wine that I know I like. Thanks, uh… for your help? I'm sorry if you've listened to this whole thing. Bye."

Arthur saved the message to his phone and resolved to come up with a way he could embarrass Merlin with it at the wrap party at the end of the season.

By Friday's joint rehearsal, Arthur had caught Merlin staring at him at least once a day, sometimes with a wary expression, but other times with a soft smile on his lips. It was hard to dismiss, but Arthur couldn't be entirely sure that Merlin didn't look that same way at his other friends. He also thought that maybe Merlin was just mirroring Arthur's energy; now that Merlin wasn't ignoring him at all costs, Arthur was finding it harder and harder to hide his attraction to Merlin, and even harder still to hide how Merlin's dancing made him _feel_. He'd stayed late in his office every night that week, trying to rework the piece he'd originally written about Mithian. He thought of it less and less as being about love, and more just about that wondrous feeling of new inspiration, like finding a new friend or a new wine.

Morgana made them run through the show three times during their joint rehearsal - once all the way through in the morning, followed by the first act again, and then the second act in the afternoon, followed by another full run-through.

By the end, Arthur was exhausted on behalf of the dancers. Merlin looked like he was about to fall over as he did his final transformation solo for the third time, but he managed to get through it without messing up.

The curtain slid shut as Arthur finished conducting the piece, and then he led the tired orchestra in a round of applause, hoping if they all acted pleased enough that Morgana wouldn't keep everyone too much longer. When the curtain glided open again, Merlin was sprawled across the floor of the stage, panting. He looked ready to fall asleep as soon as he caught his breath.

"Thank you, everyone!" Gwen called as she made her way towards the stage. She jumped up on the pit partition and then pulled herself onto the stage as the rest of the dancers came in from the wings. "We're in really fantastic shape to open next week. I just want to take a moment and thank you all for your hard work. This is the first time we're starting a season with a full, original ballet and it means a lot to me, personally, that you've all put your hearts and souls into making this a success for us."

The dancers, most of whom had sat down on the stage to listen to Gwen's speech, clapped.

"Next week is opening week, so the schedule will be a bit different," she continued, flipping through her notebook. "We'll have another joint rehearsal on Monday, dress rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday we'll go over any more adjustments that need to be made based on the dress rehearsals. And then on Friday night we'll open!"

Morgana and Lance cheered from their seats behind Arthur.

"So, basically, enjoy your weekend and I'll see you all on Monday." Gwen hopped back off the stage as the dancers dispersed.

Arthur packed up his things and lingered at the podium, saying goodbye to all of his musicians as they headed home. When he was the only one left in the pit, he let himself out and headed towards the front entrance of the theatre, but he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye.

Arthur turned back to the empty stage and saw that Merlin was still sitting there, slowly pulling his pink and yellow knitted legwarmers on over his tights.

"You all right up there?" Arthur asked.

Merlin looked up and gave Arthur a slow, sleepy smile. "Yeah. Just a bit tired."

"Can't blame you there." Arthur lifted himself over the pit partition and sat on it, looking up at the stage. "Are you ready for next week?"

Merlin got to his feet and stretched a bit, wincing. "Yeah. I'm excited to see my finished costume."

"I mean - are you ready for the media circus?"

Merlin shrugged and bent down to touch his toes and stretch out his legs. Arthur watched, trying to imagine Merlin participating in the usual interviews and photo shoots that accompanied the start of each of the company's seasons. Morgana always went all out before a new show opened, making sure each major press organization was in attendance to write a raving review.

Merlin stood back up and caught Arthur's eye. Arthur felt himself blushing, realising he'd been staring.

"You'll knock 'em dead," he said with a bright smile.

Merlin smirked. "Let's hope so."

"Don't tell me you're _shy_ ," Arthur teased.

Merlin slid off the edge of the stage onto the partition and then onto the floor. Arthur turned and hopped off the partition as well.

"Not shy, just… not interested in being any sort of public figure," Merlin explained as he headed out the side door and towards the studios.

Arthur followed him without invitation. "You could be a star if you wanted," he said honestly. "You're the best new talent we've had in a while."

"Thank you," Merlin said quietly, "but I'd rather just live my life in peace, you know?"

Arthur shrugged and waited outside one of the studios as Merlin got changed and ready to go home.

"Fancy going out for a bite?" Arthur asked when Merlin emerged a few minutes later.

"No, thanks. I have to go home and soak various body parts in ice buckets." Merlin waggled his eyebrows. "You're welcome to watch."

Arthur laughed. "That sounds horrible, actually. But I can bring beer if that would make it any better."

"Really?" Merlin asked, leading the way outside.

"Sure. Got any decent food at your place?"

"I was going to make a salad, but I've got some potatoes as well, if you want something more filling. I don't think they've gone bad, yet."

"Sounds good enough for me."

Arthur followed Merlin to the tube stop. They rode to Merlin's place in amiable silence, Arthur tapping his fingers against his legs as a new melody wrote itself in his subconscious, and Merlin leaning sleepily against the train car window.

"I'll boil some water for the potatoes," Merlin said as soon as he let Arthur into his flat.

Arthur glanced around the living room, momentarily speechless at the number of posters Merlin had covering nearly every inch of his walls. "Gosh, Merlin, who's your favourite dancer?" he teased, noticing that probably at least half of the pictures were of Rudolf Nureyev.

"I'm not picky," Merlin said with a wink. Arthur watched him walk delicately into his kitchen and frowned, realising he was in more pain than he was letting on.

"Go do your ice bucket thing," Arthur said, following Merlin into the kitchen. "I'll go grab some beer and make the salad and potatoes when I come back."

Merlin paused, eyeing his stovetop. "Are you sure?"

"Definitely. Go take care of yourself and I'll be back in a few minutes to do the rest."

Merlin gave a tight-lipped smile as he handed over the keys to his flat and then pulled out a few different sized bins from under his sink. Arthur left and only had to walk for a few minutes before he found the right shop. He realised too late that he didn't know what kind of beer Merlin liked, so he bought a pack of a brand he liked and another pack of a brand he didn't like and hoped that would be good enough.

When Arthur let himself back into Merlin's flat, he found Merlin sitting on the sofa with both feet in a large ice-filled bin, and a bag of ice over each shoulder. He had his hands over his eyes and it looked like he was struggling to breathe.

"I got the beer," Arthur said awkwardly, kicking the door closed behind him.

Merlin uncovered his eyes and gave Arthur a strange smile. "Fabulous."

"Is that as horrendous as it looks?"

Merlin nodded. "I'll admit it's not particularly fun."

"Does it really help?"

Merlin nodded again. "Trust me, I would not subject myself to this for nothing."

"Good to know. Do you want one now?" Arthur asked, holding up the bag of beer.

"Not until I eat."

"Probably smart. I'll get started on the salad." Arthur went into the kitchen and slid the beer into the fridge before crouching down to see what sort of ingredients Merlin had.

"Can I help?" Merlin called out.

"No, just keep doing whatever it is you're doing," Arthur answered, pulling out a head of lettuce.

He set about washing and chopping various vegetables, humming the melody that had burrowed into his brain on the ride over. He'd almost forgotten where he was and who he was with when Merlin came into the kitchen to dump his ice bucket out in the sink.

"Feeling any better?" Arthur asked, taking the heavy bucket out of Merlin's hands to tip it over the sink for him.

"I have _no_ feeling in my feet, so for now it's better."

Arthur laughed and handed Merlin a slice of cucumber to eat. "I couldn't help but notice that you have absolutely no salad dressing."

"I usually use olive oil," Merlin explained, spilling out the bags of ice that had been on his shoulders and then re-filling them from his freezer, which seemed to store mostly ice and very little food. "Or nothing at all."

Arthur watched Merlin place the ice-filled bags over his shoulders again and then slip on arm bands to hold them in place.

"Shoulders still bothering you?" Arthur asked, handing over another cucumber slice.

"I'm not used to lifting men so much," Merlin said quietly. "Mordred weighs a bit more than Mithian."

"First thing Monday, I'm telling Mordred you've called him fat."

Merlin laughed and poked Arthur in the ribs. "Dinner ready?"

"I forgot about the potatoes," Arthur admitted as he starting doling out salad into two large bowls, "but I'm pretty proud of this salad."

"Congratulations," Merlin said dryly.

Arthur carried the salad bowls into the living room and Merlin pulled the beer out of the bags.

"Your skin is pink," Arthur pointed out.

"It's not really enjoying what I'm doing to it," Merlin said, examining the two packs.

"Oh, I wasn't sure what to buy," Arthur started to explain. "Do you like-"

"I'm not as picky with beer as I am with wine," Merlin said simply, reaching for a bottle of the brand that Arthur didn't care for.

They ate quietly for a few minutes, the silence only broken by the occasional ice cube shifting as it melted over Merlin's shoulder. When Arthur was halfway through his first beer, Merlin's mobile started buzzing and beeping.

"That's an annoying ringtone," he commented.

"It's a timer," Merlin explained, turning it off. He got up and disappeared into the kitchen, coming back a minute later without the ice bags on his shoulders. His skin looked red and irritated as Merlin rolled his shoulders around, testing out the frozen muscles.

"Better?" Arthur asked.

Merlin pulled a face as he sat back down to finish his dinner. "It is what it is."

"Play your cards right and I may offer you a massage later."

To Arthur's relief, Merlin looked tempted by the idea, rather than annoyed or offended.

"What kind of cards would I have to play for that?"

Arthur pretended to think about it for a minute. "Maybe tell me why you acted like you hated me until fairly recently, even though I'm pretty sure I've never killed a member of your family."

"Pretty sure?"

Arthur shrugged. "Your family might be spiders for all I know. No judgement here."

Merlin took one last bite of his salad and then set his empty bowl next to him on the sofa. "That seems more like a mid-massage confession than a pre-massage confession."

Arthur grinned and gestured for Merlin to take a seat on the floor in front of him. Merlin only hesitated for a moment before slipping off the sofa and arranging a few cushions on the floor to sit on. Arthur tucked his legs underneath him and took a long swig of beer before laying his hands on Merlin's shoulders.

"Any bad spots I should avoid?" he asked, his voice a bit too loud.

Merlin shook his head and started sipping at his second beer of the night. Arthur cleared his throat and worked his thumbs gently into the base of the back of Merlin's neck. Merlin took a deep breath and adjusted his posture slightly, clearly trying to relax.

"You're supposed to be explaining your wretched behaviour," Arthur said quietly after a few minutes, suspecting that Merlin might be on his way towards falling asleep.

"Right," Merlin mumbled before adjusting his posture again. "There was, um… this ballet master at the Bolshoi. He was reasonably young and very talented and _very_ good-looking. He would seduce all the new, young, pretty members of the corps and if any of them ever turned him down, he'd ruin their chances of ever advancing."

"That's horrible," Arthur acknowledged. "But what does that have to do with why you hated me?"

"I didn't _hate_ you. I just heard a few things about you when I joined the company and you sounded… you sounded quite similar. I know I should have given you the benefit of the doubt, but I really _did_ hate that ballet master. He was why I ended up leaving the Bolshoi, even though I actually liked everything else about it there."

"I've never ruined anyone's career," Arthur assured him.

"That's very nice of you," Merlin said, his voice slightly gruff as Arthur began putting a bit more pressure into his massage.

"How old were you when you learned English?" Arthur asked after a long pause. "You sound perfectly British."

"Really? People always tell me they can tell it's my second language because of my - ah - cadence… or intonation - _ah_ \- or something." Merlin mumbled something Arthur didn't quite catch, probably in another language, and then let out a soft moan that ended in a bit of a whimper.

"Too hard?"

"No," Merlin breathed. "It's good."

Arthur pressed his knuckles into the soft skin under Merlin's shoulder blades. "I like your cadence," he said, surprised to hear his own voice come out as a whisper. "It's very melodic. Quite fitting for a dancer."

Merlin hummed in thanks and then gasped, his breath caught in his throat as Arthur worked the muscles around his spine. The gasp was followed by another moan and a familiar warmth settled in Arthur's stomach as the thought crossed his mind that Merlin probably made these exact sounds in bed.

"Tell me something else," he said quickly, speaking at a normal volume. He needed something to distract himself before that warmth travelled any lower.

"Like what?" Merlin asked, his voice slightly strangled. "It's your turn, anyway."

"I'm not that exciting. Tell me what you love so much about Nureyev," Arthur prompted, looking up at several different posters of the dancer hung on Merlin's walls.

"See for yourself," Merlin said, gesturing up at the photos. "He was gorgeous."

"He looks like he was a bit harsh," Arthur decided, taking in his sharp jaw line.

"He had a very classic Soviet look," Merlin agreed. "And a very sexy Danish lover."

"Really?" Arthur asked, pretending he hadn't already known that. He let Merlin talk through the broad strokes of Nureyev's biography for a while, until his arms started hurting from the effort of the massage.

"So did you join the Bolshoi just to find the Nureyev to your Bruhn?" Arthur asked, winding down the massage with a few light scratches down Merlin's back.

Merlin shivered, laughing quietly, and Arthur grinned.

"Something like that, yes." Merlin reached his arms above his head and stretched languidly, letting out a satisfied groan. "Thank you for the massage." He dropped his arms and turned to give Arthur a warm smile over his shoulder.

Arthur returned the smile easily. "You're welcome. I hope it helped a bit."

"Definitely." Merlin grunted as he got to his feet. He picked up another beer before grabbing their empty salad bowls and taking them to the kitchen.

Arthur took a few more sips of his second beer before joining Merlin in the kitchen to help clean up.

"I should not be drinking this much," Merlin said before taking a large gulp of his third beer.

"This is probably nothing compared to whatever happened at Gwaine's party the other week," Arthur pointed out.

Merlin laughed, holding onto the edge of his counter since his knees seemed to be giving out under the combination of exhaustion, alcohol, and the giggles.

Before he could think of a reason not to, Arthur reached out and put a hand on Merlin's waist to steady him, and then leaned in for a lop-sided, smiling kiss.

Merlin stopped laughing immediately and Arthur took a step closer to deepen the kiss. Merlin edged away clumsily, one hand clutching the neck of his beer bottle and the back of his other hand pressing to his mouth. Arthur licked his lips, wondering if his breath was that foul.

"What -" Merlin started, lowering his hand. "How could you think… did you _not_ hear what I said in there?" he asked, gesturing towards the living room.

Arthur frowned, realising he'd misinterpreted the situation. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I thought -"

" _I_ thought I made it clear I wasn't interested in what you do."

"What I _do_? Merlin, that wasn't -"

"I don't want to hear it." Merlin set his beer down on the counter and crossed his arms. "I get that you think you're not abusing your power here, and maybe you really aren't, but… you know, I thought I had misjudged you but my initial impression was right, wasn't it? You're just horny and looking out for your own interests."

"Merlin -"

"I'd like for you to leave," Merlin said quietly.

"Can't we just -"

"No. I don't want you here anymore. You can take the beer."

Arthur paused, digging his hands into his pockets. "I bought it for you," he mumbled. "I'll see you Monday, I guess."

Merlin escorted him back out to the living room and opened the door for him to leave.

"I am sorry," Arthur said once he'd stepped into the hallway, holding the door open firmly so Merlin wouldn't shut it in his face. "Please don't let this ruin a perfectly good friendship." Merlin's eyes narrowed. "Or, working relationship, at least."

Merlin shook his head. "No promises. Goodnight, Arthur."

Arthur let go of the door and Merlin closed it. He heard the locks click into place and waited a moment, hoping for some reason that Merlin would change his mind. Of course, Merlin stayed in his flat and Arthur was left with no choice but to go home.

 **-x-**

 **4 Days to Premiere**

Arthur did his best to bury himself in work for the rest of his weekend, but it was hard with the threat of opening week looming over him. He shouldn't have acted so rashly. His career, and Merlin's career, were more important than getting off.

Except, Arthur couldn't shake the feeling that, with Merlin, it would have been more than just sex. Arthur hadn't been so inspired by someone since he'd been with Mithian, and that was the most serious relationship he'd ever had. It was almost, he hated to think it, an infatuation - the way Merlin popped into his head every time he sat down to write, or even when he wasn't writing but simply sitting and humming absent-mindedly to himself. Merlin was always there, moving in marvellous and delicious ways and bringing new music to Arthur's fingertips.

He should have just left it alone and maybe convinced Merlin to improvise for him in private, to become his muse. They probably could have managed that dynamic for a few years, but Arthur had ruined everything before they'd even had a chance.

Monday was their last casual joint rehearsal, although it felt anything but casual. Lance and his team had skipped Friday's rehearsal, but they were back in full force on Monday with a fully designed light show that made their opening night palpable. The set was completed as well, for both the classroom and swamp scenes. Only the costumes were still being altered, and even those only needed a few more touch-ups before they were finalized for the next day's dress rehearsal.

In anticipation of the dress rehearsal, Morgana attempted to keep things light by having the company run through one scene at a time, instead of the whole ballet all at once.

Arthur put all of his energy into the music, refusing to let Leon help with the conducting. He watched his score as much as he dared, only looking up at the dancers when he had to check that the tempo was still working or when he needed a cue. This strategy made the rehearsal drag by slowly.

 **-x-**

 **3 Days to Premiere**

The first dress rehearsal on Tuesday afternoon was a disaster. Some dancers had costumes that were falling apart on stage, while others had costumes so restrictive they couldn't move as freely as they needed to. Arthur was missing a few key musicians who had all caught a cold and needed to rest so they'd be ready for the end of the week. Even the principals, who at least had functional costumes, had trouble with the choreography. Mithian couldn't seem to find her centre of gravity, and Merlin's shoulders were bothering him so much he skipped most of the lifts with both Mithian and Mordred, which left them all awkwardly improvising alternate moves.

"At least this is out of everyone's systems," Leon said bracingly to Arthur after the curtain closed on Merlin's solo.

Arthur shook his head and rubbed his temples as the curtain slid open again to reveal the company coming on stage to listen to what was likely to be a scathing critique from Morgana. All of the dancers looked as miserable as Arthur felt.

 **-x-**

 **2 Days to Premiere**

The dress rehearsal on Wednesday went so smoothly it actually felt like a real performance. The costumes had all been fixed, the company seemed to have gotten rid of their jitters and injuries, and the whole orchestra was in attendance.

Arthur handed conducting duties over to Leon after the first act so he could join Morgana and Gwen in the audience for the rest of the show. The next day would be the last time they had to make any adjustments before the premiere, and he wanted to make sure he had the full impression of the ballet in case there was still room for improvement.

Of course, there was always room for improvement and he found himself pulling out his mobile to jot down notes about where the orchestra could be faster or crisper or just plain better.

He knew his notes were nit-picky, though. Truly, the orchestra was in great shape and didn't need to make any adjustments to put on a good show. But Arthur wanted a _great_ show.

He also wanted something to distract himself from Merlin's nearly intoxicating dance. Arthur wanted so badly to get over Merlin, to dismiss his dancing, but it was impossible. He was mesmerising and it was all Arthur could do to focus on the music.

As he watched the ballet come to a close, Arthur couldn't help but to try to think of various ways he could try to win Merlin back. He didn't want to lose his source of inspiration, and he didn't want to lose a friend. He had liked hanging out with Merlin, despite the rocky start, and just wanted to get back to that easy connection.

After the rehearsal was over, Arthur invited Leon up to his office so they could go over their notes and get ready for the next day. They were going to have separate dance and orchestra rehearsals in the morning to make the necessary last-minute adjustments, and then meet for a joint rehearsal in the afternoon to go over the scenes that had been changed. On Friday there would be no joint rehearsals, just minimal touch-ups before the performance and then there would be nothing left to do but let it happen and watch what all their hard work had led to.

When Leon headed home for the night, Arthur opened up his composition software and printed out what he'd done so far. He took the pages down to the theatre and set himself up at the concert piano.

The software was good for making quick changes - much easier than working on his hand-written score, at least - but he hated listening to the tinny playback. The computer made the music sound cheap, somehow. He'd been working on it long enough that he needed to try it out on a real instrument, though it wasn't something he would risk doing during the day when anyone could walk in on him.

Arthur warmed up with a few scales and then a few bars of the music from Gwen's ballet until he got used to how loud the piano was in the completely empty theatre. He carefully arranged his composition so that everything was visible and he wouldn't have worry about turning the pages, took a deep breath, and stared playing his piece.

He played through everything he had once without stopping and then took a break to scribble a few changes on the print-outs. It sounded good - not great, but definitely not bad - and he was sure that he was close to something he could be proud of, something that Morgana and Gwen would be inspired by, something that Merlin could dance to.

Arthur pushed those thoughts aside and played through his piece again, smiling at how much better it sounded after just a few minor adjustments. He played the opening few minutes several times, trying to get them just right. He did them slowly, picking out and changing the notes that weren't quite what they should be, and then did them again faster and faster until it was perfect and he was slightly out of breath from how exhilarating it was.

When he was satisfied with the first page, Arthur decided to take a break and get some water. He stood up from the piano bench and turned to let himself out of the pit, but then he noticed Merlin sitting towards the back of the house.

Arthur froze for a moment, surprised at first but then annoyed. How long had Merlin been sitting there and why hadn't he said anything? He certainly hadn't liked it when Arthur had accidentally caught him dancing alone that one evening; he had to know that Arthur would feel the same way about this.

"Sorry," Merlin called down to the pit. "I heard you playing as I was leaving. Did you write that?"

Arthur nodded and lifted himself over the pit railing. "You should go home, Merlin," he said, hoping he didn't sound as frustrated as he felt at being overheard. "Don't want to be sleep deprived for the big day."

Merlin rolled his eyes but left without saying anything else. Arthur considered his plans of getting water and going back to work, but found that his inspiration for the evening was gone. He just wanted to go home and drink wine and pretend that the last few minutes hadn't happened.

Arthur leaned over the pit railing to grab his composition off the piano. He stashed the papers back in his office and left as quickly as he dared, trying to time it so that he wouldn't be on the same train as Merlin.

 **-x-**

 **1 Day to Premiere**

Arthur spent the morning taking the orchestra through each movement of the piece, making sure everyone understood exactly when and why they needed to play a certain way. He could see his more seasoned musicians rolling their eyes at him as he repeated himself over and over again, but the music was sounding better and better so he didn't mind. They were doing what he needed them to do, and he didn't care if they were annoyed at him for it.

Arthur ate his lunch on the floor of one of the dance studios with Mithian and Elena. They let him know which scenes Gwen had rehearsed and adjusted that morning and then gave up on talking about work to discuss their weekend plans instead. Arthur didn't have any plans other than sleeping and conducting the orchestra through 4 performances, but the girls seemed to have plenty of plans for their opening weekend.

Mithian somehow had plans to go to a friend's bachelorette party after the premiere, and then she was spending all of Saturday with her father before he came to that night's show.

"I meant to tell you that Gwaine and I are hosting a brunch for some of the dancers on Saturday, but I guess you'll be with your dad?" Elena asked as she stood to start warming up again.

"Yeah, sorry. Let me know the next time you two do that, though. It sounds fun."

"You should come, Arthur." Elena grabbed the barre and bent over backwards at an alarming angle.

"Maybe. God, how does that _not_ hurt?"

"Years of practice," Elena said, her voice tight. She let out a tiny gasp as she righted herself and then held out her hands. "Come try."

"I'm not looking to break my neck, thanks."

Mithian laughed and stood up, then pulled Arthur to his feet as well. "It's not that bad," she insisted.

"Says the girl who used to fill up my entire bathtub with ice and then sit in it up to her neck."

"Watch your mouth," Mithian snapped, grabbing Arthur's hands and slapping them down on the barre. "I'm not a girl. I'm a strong, independent woman."

"Yes, ma'am."

"First position," Elena instructed, demonstrating.

Arthur watched her place the backs of her heels together, her feet a perfect straight line under her shoulders.

"No, thanks."

"I know you know how," Mithian said, nudging Arthur's shins with her foot. Arthur glared at her and she smiled innocently. "Don't make me position you myself."

Arthur wiggled into first position as best he could, though his feet were mostly held in place by the soles of his shoes stuck to the floor. His upper leg muscles had long forgotten how to do this on their own.

"That's not bad," Elena said, letting go of the barre to push on his hips.

"Arthur took ballet when he was wee," Mithian revealed, laughing.

"You didn't!" Elena gaped at him.

"I… _may_ have dabbled," Arthur admitted, sliding out into second position.

"I can just imagine a pompous little blond boy in his tights, trying to outshine his sister," Elena teased.

"Trying? I outshone her easily. What are you -" Arthur frowned as Elena and Mithian both started grabbing at him, guiding his upper and lower body through a few more positions.

"Looks like you've been skipping leg day at the gym," Mithian tutted, trying to get Arthur's thighs to move in a way that Arthur was pretty sure human thighs weren't meant to move.

"How dare you suggest such a thing." Arthur kicked her gently and looked over his shoulder to stick his tongue out at her. He caught sight of Merlin standing near the door, laughing silently at the scene. "What time is it?" he asked quietly, turning back around.

Elena checked the digital clock sitting on the piano. "It's one. I guess we'd better start _actually_ warming up. Hey Merlin!" She waved and then ran over to him to chat.

"How long was he standing there?" Arthur asked Mithian, shaking out his legs.

"The whole time, I think. Why?"

Arthur shrugged and turned to collect his things from the floor. "Just curious."

"Are you two…" Mithian trailed off, her eyebrows raised.

"No," Arthur said. "We're _not_."

Mithian gave him a sceptical look before kissing him on the cheek and going off to the side of the room to warm up. Arthur left, slipping past Elena and Merlin, and went to find Gwen to discuss the plans for the afternoon's rehearsal.

They conferred briefly and started with the first adjusted scene promptly at one thirty. Morgana stayed impressively silent for the whole afternoon, leaving all of her comments for the very end when she got on stage for her pep talk.

Arthur didn't pay attention to most of what she said, choosing instead to watch the various clumps of dancers on the stage. Elena and some of the other soloists were front and centre, raptly listening to Morgana's speech. Mithian and Mordred were hiding behind the soloists, murmuring to each other and apparently not paying any attention. Merlin was off on stage right, two bags of ice already draped over his shoulders.

"Any questions or concerns?" Morgana asked, winding down. When she got no responses, she dismissed everyone for the evening and hopped off the stage and into the pit. She waited for Arthur to tidy up his podium and then followed him out to the house seats.

"Are you feeling good?" She asked, blocking his route to the exit.

"I'd feel better if you let me leave for the night," Arthur said honestly.

"Can I borrow you for 5 minutes before you go? In my office."

Arthur sighed and tucked his bag under his arm. "Fine. When?"

Morgana checked her watch but before she could answer, Merlin came over, ice bags still strapped to his shoulders.

"How are they?" Morgana asked, adjusting one of the straps for him. "You should stop by the physio's office before you leave. Try to get a massage or something."

Merlin glanced at Arthur before nodding at Morgana's advice. "My mother's coming in next weekend for the show - I was wondering if you'd like to meet us for lunch on Saturday? Gwen will be there as well."

Morgana grinned. "Of course, I'd love to meet her. Just tell me when and where and I'll be there." Someone called Morgana's name from off stage and she cursed under her breath. "Arthur, meet me in my office in ten minutes," she instructed before running off.

Arthur watched her leave, annoyed. He'd be lucky to get out within an hour if she kept getting pulled away from whatever it was she wanted to talk to him about.

When Merlin didn't immediately walk away, Arthur forced a polite smile and was about to excuse himself when Merlin spoke.

"She's bringing wine - my mother - from Denmark. Would you like another bottle of that Chardonnay?"

"Oh," Arthur said, surprised at the offer. "No, you don't have to do that."

"But if I wanted to…"

"That would be incredibly kind of you," Arthur said quietly. "You don't have to, though. We don't need to do this."

Merlin looked down at his hands for a moment, then back up at Arthur, his jaw set. "I want to. I kept thinking about it, and… well, you were right. We shouldn't let one stupid moment ruin a perfectly good friendship. Can we start over again? As friends?"

Arthur's chest tightened at the thought of being forced to stay platonic with Merlin for the rest of their time together at the company. He wanted so much more than that, but he knew he didn't have a choice. It was either friendship, and maybe even a chance at exploring that burning inspiration a little closer, or nothing.

"I'd like that," Arthur agreed. He held out his hand for Merlin to shake. "Friends."

Merlin gave him a bright smile before bidding him goodnight and heading off to take care of his shoulders. Arthur lingered for a few minutes, taking in the quiet stillness of the theatre, before heading to Morgana's office to wait.

Surprisingly, he only had to wait about five minutes before she came in and shooed him home, having apparently decided that his assistance wasn't needed after all. Arthur wanted to leave, but something inside of him was nagging at him to stay, so he went up to his own office and ended up staying late into the night, writing a new piece on his computer as he tried to process where things now stood between him and Merlin.

 **-x-**

 **Day of Premiere**

Arthur slept in the next morning and spent most of his day trying to do _nothing_ so that he would be relaxed and well-rested for that night's performance. He wasn't nervous about the music - his orchestra was always perfectly prepared. He wasn't really nervous about the dancing or the show's reception, either. He rarely was; Morgana ran a tight ship and wouldn't let the premiere go on unless she was completely confident.

He was nervous, as reluctant as he was to admit it even to himself, about seeing Merlin again. He was nervous about trying to make chit-chat, he was nervous about losing his concentration while conducting, he was nervous about the inevitable invitations to an after-party.

Arthur knew he _should_ just behave and be professional, but he _wanted_ so much more than that, and he'd always had a bit of an impulse control problem when there was someone he liked so much.

A few hours before the premiere, Arthur began to get ready. He ironed his clothes and slipped them into garment bags and then took a long, hot shower. He washed every inch of himself, wanked twice, and then scrubbed down again.

When he felt sated and physically clean enough to hope he could keep his thoughts clean, Arthur dressed in old jeans and his favourite t-shirt and headed for the theatre. He stopped by the warm-up that Gwen was leading to wish the company good luck before heading to his office to change into his suit. He spent a long time in the loo down the hall, trying to get his hair to look like he'd only spent 5 seconds on it.

Finally satisfied with how he looked, Arthur returned to his office to find Leon waiting for him. Leon was dressed in his best as well, his usually curly locks tamed into soft waves.

"Ready for the big night?" Leon asked, getting up from Arthur's chair.

Arthur grabbed his suit jacket from where it had been hanging on the back of his door and shrugged it on. "You look good."

"I'll take that as a solid 'maybe.' But thank you. You look just okay."

"Yeah, this bespoke three-piece suit is very mediocre."

"That waistcoat is perfectly vile." Leon stood and stepped into the hall. "Shall we go mingle with the eager guests?"

"Must we?"

Leon nodded, smiling, so Arthur finished buttoning his jacket and then followed Leon down to the lobby, which was already filling with patrons.

They stayed as long as Arthur dared, chatting with some of the company's donors and various reporters, before heading under the stage to warm up the orchestra. Thirty minutes before the show was due to start, Arthur led his musicians into the pit so they could get settled. He sat next to his podium, waiting patiently for Leon, who was casually lingering just outside of the gate, to pass along the signal from Lance up in the tech booth.

He listened to the audience taking their seats, imaging Gwen and Morgana trying to act calm as their ballet baby was about to be birthed right in front of them.

Ten minutes before curtain, Arthur motioned for the orchestra to stop warming up and sit quietly as everything settled down. He closed his eyes and ran through the score in his head, reminding himself of the parts where the orchestra needed the most nudging and the parts where he would need to keep a close eye on the dancers to make sure nothing fell out of sync.

Finally, Leon slipped into the pit, closing the gate behind him. Arthur double-checked his range of motion in the suit before standing and taking to the podium. Leon took his seat.

The audience quieted down and Arthur checked quickly over his shoulder to give the final signal to Lance. The house lights dimmed and Arthur raised his baton slowly as he took a deep breath. This was it.

He counted off quickly and the orchestra burst to life. The curtain slid open slowly, revealing the still unlit classroom set inch by inch as Arthur conducted the overture. As the music intensified, the stage gradually lightened to a soft orange colour, indicating that the sun was rising on a new day at the school.

There was a brief pause at the end of the overture, and then Arthur led the orchestra right into the first act and the dancers finally made their way onto the stage.

Arthur kept as focused as he could on the music, watching his musicians closely and making sure he always had an eye on the score so he wouldn't lose his place or forget any important notations. The show moved along smoothly, with Mithian and her "students" performing energetically during the first act, and Mordred leading Mithian into the swamp at the beginning of the second act. After that, it wasn't long before Merlin made his first appearance.

If Merlin was mesmerising during rehearsals, he was nothing short of enchanting for the actual performance. Everything about him seemed slightly enhanced, from the height of his leaps to the angle of his toe-points to the crispness of each gesture with his long arms.

It was _unfair_ , Arthur thought, that Merlin was so talented and so attractive and so nice. As Merlin was also so off-limits, Arthur couldn't really find a single _fair_ thing about him.

When the second act ended, there was a break for intermission. Arthur waited until the theatre was half empty before dismissing his musicians from the pit. He headed backstage to congratulate Gwen on how well it was going, but found Mithian and Merlin first. They were sitting on the floor, Merlin sewing Mithian into a new pair of pointe shoes.

Mithian beamed up at Arthur as he approached, so he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.

"You're doing a beautiful job," he said. "Both of you."

Merlin smiled as he tugged at the ribbons around Mithian's ankle. "Tight enough?"

"It's perfect."

Merlin got to his feet and then pulled Mithian up to hers. She gave him a quick hug before going off to break-in the new shoes.

"How is it for you?" Arthur asked before there could be too much awkward silence. "Tempos good?"

"It's going swimmingly. Are you going to any of the parties afterwards?"

Arthur followed Merlin into his dressing room, where he pulled on legwarmers and a large sweater, careful not to mess up his hair or make-up.

"I might just… not," Arthur said guiltily. He did want to celebrate with his friends, but if Merlin was going to be there, he felt that staying away would be safest. He'd experienced that strange mixture of adrenaline and alcohol too many times to pretend he didn't know what he might do if the opportunity arose. "I'll probably go to Elena and Gwaine's brunch tomorrow, though."

"Me, too." Merlin gave Arthur a small smile before turning to the large brightly-lit mirror to reapply his make-up. Arthur watched a moment, taking in Merlin's long eyelashes, strangely delicate nose, and his large but somehow alluring ears before excusing himself.

He checked in with Gwen and Morgana, who were too beside themselves to be good company, stopped by the loo, and then headed back to the pit. Leon was there, apparently waiting for him again.

"Any trouble?" Leon asked, handing Arthur a bottle of water.

Arthur took several large gulps before answering. "Not a one."

"Good." Leon glanced towards the stage. "I was worried with the way you were looking at him you might lose concentration."

Arthur could tell from Leon's tone that it was a joke, but the truth behind it still made him blush. He didn't even have to ask who 'him' was. "I wasn't looking in any kind of way."

"No, you were. You had that sort of star-struck look on your face. Mixed with this insane… unbearable fondness."

"Maybe _you_ spend too much time looking at _me_ ," Arthur muttered, taking his place at the podium to bring the conversation to a close. He hated being so transparent but it was hard to stop it from happening when he was so unaware of it.

Arthur tried to reign it in, whatever _it_ was, during the second half of the show, but it was difficult when Merlin was so impossible to look away from and when it was important for him to keep an eye on all of the dancers for the sake of the music. He managed to focus almost solely on the orchestra during the third act, but once the fourth act started, there was no point.

The fight scene was magnificent. Merlin and Mordred were aggressive and rueful and they couldn't seem to stop touching. Finally, Merlin stood over Mordred's still body, apparently overwhelmed by the consequences of his victory. He knelt down slowly and it looked, for one moment, as if he might kiss Mordred, but then Mithian ran over to thank Merlin for saving her and Merlin had to tear himself away from his ex-lover's corpse.

The curtain closed behind Merlin and Mithian as they danced their way back to the classroom and the crew changed the set. Mithian was clearly smitten and Merlin was still playing along, but there was something about the droop of his shoulders that belied his love-struck expression and didn't seem to be from the pain Arthur knew he was feeling after the strenuous fight scene.

As Mithian left the stage for a final time, her character heading home, the lighting dimmed again, first to blue and then to a dark green, reminiscent of the swamp and Mordred's lizard disguise. Merlin flew through the choreography of his transition, so energetic that Arthur sped up the orchestra to help him along. He was positively owning the stage, dwarfing the minimal classroom set with his jumps and spins and sheer stage presence.

Just as Arthur was thinking that Merlin must be close to collapsing, his transition into a lizard was complete and his dancing began to slow down. Arthur kept the orchestra's tempo in sync, watching as Merlin drifted to one side of the stage to signify his return to the lizard's tank. He swept his arms out behind him slinkily, the movements still reminiscent of a tail, and didn't stop moving as Arthur conducted to the end of the piece and the curtain closed dramatically.

The audience applauded wildly and Arthur set his baton down before moving quickly to the door at the back of the pit that would lead him backstage. He ran through the corridors, buttoning up his suit jacket, until he reached the wings. In the time it had taken him to get there, he'd missed the corps and the soloists, so he watched as Mithian, Mordred, and Merlin took their bows, and then watched as someone brought Mithian an oversized bouquet and they all bowed again.

When the company was finally done, Gwen, Morgana, Arthur, Lance, and Freya, the costume designer, joined them on their stage for their own bows. Arthur thought it seemed to take ages, but as soon as the curtain closed for the last time, it suddenly felt like it had only been a flash.

Backstage was chaos for while, with dancers and musicians and various other company staff running around, celebrating and congratulating each other. Arthur took off his suit jacket and stayed close to Morgana, who was almost in tears at how pleased she was with the premiere. Eventually the crowd thinned, with dancers heading towards the dressing rooms to get changed out of their costumes and musicians going back to the pit to pack up their instruments and sheet music.

Arthur lingered on stage, watching, bemused, as several dancers tried to convince Gwen to come out for a drink with them. Merlin was one of them, ice packs already in place over his shoulders.

"Please?" Mithian was actually tugging on one of Gwen's arms. "I'll buy all your drinks. You deserve to do _something_ after all your amazing work."

Arthur walked over and placed his hand on the small of Gwen's back. "Treat yourself," he chimed in.

"I appreciate all of your concern," Gwen said, blushing, "but if you must know, I'm going to 'treat myself' to what I 'deserve' by going home and getting royally shagged by my boyfriend."

Merlin catcalled as Mithian doubled over in laughter.

"And with that, I bid you goodnight." Gwen kissed each of them on the cheek and then went to find Lance.

Arthur watched her go, then turned back around to find that Mithian had gone, leaving only Elena and Merlin still standing there.

"I expect you both at my flat tomorrow," Elena said sternly. "Any time after ten. But we'll be eating by eleven."

"I'll be there," Merlin assured her.

Elena turned to Arthur, her eyebrows raised.

"I'll be there as well," Arthur decided. "Bright and early. Or whatever."

"Not too early or you'll see Gwaine naked," Elena said, leaning in for a hug. She gave one to Merlin as well and then left to get changed.

"Going out to celebrate?" Arthur asked as Merlin slipped the ice bags off his shoulders.

"I haven't been able to make up my mind… which I think means I should probably just go home and ice-up again and go sleep. What about you?"

"I have the same plans," Arthur teased. "I love icing-up."

Merlin grinned. "Would you like to come over? I bought a few wines last night, maybe you can help me figure out which one would be good."

Arthur opened his mouth, then closed it quickly, surprised by the offer. "I don't… maybe I shouldn't," he muttered, slipping his hands into his pockets and looking away.

"Please?" Merlin asked quietly. "I think that's the only level of celebration I can manage, but I don't want to completely miss out on a party."

"Are you sure?" Arthur forced himself to meet Merlin's hopeful gaze. "I don't want to impose."

"I'm sure," Merlin said, smiling. "I just have to get out of this costume and then we can leave."

"Want to meet me at my office? I have to get out of this suit as well."

Merlin nodded and went off to his dressing room, so Arthur hurried to his office to change back into his jeans and t-shirt. There was a knock on his door after a few minutes, but when he opened it, he found Morgana instead of Merlin standing in the hallway.

"Thank you for everything," she said, nearly crushing him in a hug.

"You're very welcome," Arthur managed as he patted her back. "Please release my ribcage so I can breathe again."

Morgana chuckled and let him go. "I'm going out with Leon and Freya and some others - would you like to join us?"

"I called dibs on him," Merlin said from down the hall.

Morgana raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She gave Arthur another hug and kissed Merlin on the cheek. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do," she called over her shoulder as she headed back to her own office.

Arthur turned away from Merlin for a moment to finish hanging his suit back up.

"So how did you and Morgana meet, anyway?"

Arthur snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. And how weird is it that you happen to have the same last name? It's not even a common name."

"You're an idiot."

Merlin laughed. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Arthur kicked his dress shoes under his desk and turned off the lights in his office. He followed Merlin out of the theatre and to the tube stop, trying to keep things light and casual by telling Merlin which journalists he'd noticed in the audience.

By the time they reached Merlin's flat, Arthur was feeling the buzz of opening night wearing off, and exhaustion settling over him. Merlin didn't look much better.

Arthur made Merlin sit on the sofa while he readied the bags and buckets of ice, then tried to find some music to play that would take Merlin's mind off the pain. Merlin had an entire bookshelf lined with vinyl records and CDs, but they were all classical music.

"Don't you have anything more modern?" Arthur asked, pulling out a record that looked like it had been sitting on the shelf, untouched, for as long as Merlin had lived there. He dusted off the cover and tried to read the Cyrillic writing on the sleeve. He couldn't be sure, but based on the art, he guessed it was _Swan Lake_. "Or are you one of _those_ dancers?"

"So judgemental," Merlin said, wincing as he slipped his feet into the ice bucket. "I've got my 'modern' music on my computer, like a normal modern person."

"A likely story." Arthur settled himself at Merlin's desk and wiggled the mouse. Merlin's large-screen monitor lit up and asked for a password. "You're either going to have to get up or tell me your password," he announced. "Or I can try to guess it."

"Please don't guess it."

"That's not the way to discourage me. How about balletwhore? Danishwine? C3POwannabe? Icedupslut?"

Merlin laughed and shot Arthur an embarrassed smile. "If you tried a little harder, you'd probably get it."

Arthur smirked and typed out 'Nureyev.' The computer unlocked and Arthur turned to make fun of Merlin but saw that he had his hands over his eyes and his lips pressed tight against whatever pain he was in.

Arthur scrolled through Merlin's music collection until he found an album he liked. He pressed play and the gentle music started playing through the speakers mounted on either side of Merlin's bookshelves.

"Did you pick this randomly?" Merlin asked quietly, lowering his hands.

"No, I love Sufjan Stevens." Arthur turned the chair around and stretched his legs out in front of himself. "I saw him live a few years ago."

"I hate you," Merlin said without much heat. "I'd kill to see him."

Arthur leaned back in the chair, laced his fingers behind his head, and closed his eyes. "I have a proposal," he said before he could stop himself.

"Yeah?"

"Remember that day I walked in on you in the studio?"

"Vividly," Merlin said, sounding bitter. Arthur opened his eyes and saw Merlin smiling. "Yes, I remember."

"Is that something you do a lot?"

"What, dance?"

"Dance… alone, I guess. Improvising or whatever you were doing."

"I do it sometimes. When I have a free afternoon or evening or… whenever I'm feeling particularly inspired, I guess. What's your proposal?"

"Would you mind if I watched sometimes?"

Merlin looked surprised but not alarmed. "Why would you want to?"

Arthur threaded his fingers nervously through his hair. "I really enjoy your dancing. As you… saw the other night, I fancy myself a bit of an amateur composer, but inspiration is hard to come by… at least, it used to be."

"Are you asking me to be your muse?" Merlin asked, grinning.

"Maybe."

Merlin stayed quiet for a moment and Arthur forced himself not to look away from Merlin's searching gaze. "I really loved that piece I heard you playing on Wednesday night, so I suppose I can let you watch me if it's going to lead to more music like that," he said finally.

"Thank you," Arthur said quietly.

Neither of them said anything else until Merlin's timer went off and he lifted his feet out of the freezing water.

"I am 100% ready for bed," Merlin mumbled. "I think it's time for that wine."

"Are you sure?" Arthur asked around a yawn. "I'm pretty tired as well." He stood and picked up the ice bucket.

"No, no. I promised you wine." Merlin pushed himself off the sofa and followed Arthur into the kitchen, peeling the ice bags off his shoulders. He tossed them onto the counter and took a few bottles of wine down from on top of the fridge.

Arthur dumped out the bucket and the bags as Merlin pulled out two glasses.

"So, what do we have?" Arthur picked up the first bottle. "Mexican Merlot?"

"I was thinking maybe this one." Merlin handed over another bottle and Arthur set down the Merlot.

"Soave." Arthur examined the label. "I don't recognize this brand, where'd you get it?"

"Morgana gave it to me, actually. I thought about saving it, which is why I bought these other wines last night, but… I feel like tonight qualifies as a special occasion. Interested?"

"Only if you're sure."

"I'm sure." Merlin opened the wine and poured two glasses, then handed one to Arthur. "To lizards."

Arthur chuckled and clinked his glass against Merlin's before taking a sip. "God, that is delicious."

Merlin hummed in agreement before stepping forward and capturing Arthur's lips in a warm, wet kiss.

"That's…" Arthur licked his lips and stared down into his glass as Merlin took a step back.

"I was going to tell you that I'd changed my mind," Merlin said quietly. "Before I kissed you, I mean. But I forgot."

Arthur bit back a smile and looked up. "You forgot?"

Merlin took a long gulp of wine before answering. "You distracted me."

"My apologies. How very rude of me." Arthur sipped at his wine. "May I ask what happened?"

"Morgana may have had some words with me."

"Morgana?" Arthur asked, alarmed. "Why would she-"

"I may have asked her," Merlin admitted, blushing. "I thought she would be the best person to give some objective advice."

"You were very wrong there," Arthur grumbled.

"She had nothing but nice things to say," Merlin assured him. "Begrudgingly nice, but… that just made it more credible, I think."

"You have a very strange way of going about this," Arthur pointed out.

"True." Merlin smiled sheepishly. "But I had a nagging feeling I'd made a mistake and I _do_ like you…" He shrugged and finished off his wine before pouring himself a second glass. "Plus, you looked incredible in that suit earlier tonight."

Arthur smirked and moved in for another kiss. He slipped his fingers into Merlin's hair, holding him there. Merlin's kiss was playful and teasing, and Arthur couldn't help but smile into it.

"You're going to be trouble," Arthur whispered when Merlin pulled back to nip at Arthur's neck.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Merlin set his wine glass down and slid his fingers under Arthur's shirt to hold Arthur's hips.

"I find you…" Arthur took a shaky breath as Merlin's teeth tugged on his earlobe. "Intoxicating."

Merlin laughed, quietly at first but then louder and louder until he was doubled over and clutching the counter to stay upright.

"I can't believe I just said that." Arthur knocked back the last of his wine and then reached for Merlin's glass. He drained most of it before Merlin finally righted himself and took the glass back to finish the last few sips.

"Come on," Merlin said, tugging at Arthur's sleeve. "Let's sleep this off and deal with what you just said in the morning."

Arthur followed Merlin into his bedroom, still feeling a little dumbstruck by the last few minutes.

Merlin tugged off his shirt and jeans and crawled under the covers of his bed. Arthur stayed where he was, standing by the door, until Merlin gave him a pointed look.

"What are we doing?" Arthur asked.

"Sleeping. Unless you'd rather crash on the sofa. Or you can go home and do it there."

"You want me to sleep here?"

"If you'd like." Merlin pulled down the covers on the other side of the bed and patted the mattress.

Arthur took off his clothes, trying not to notice the way Merlin was staring, and slipped under the sheets in just his boxers.

Merlin turned off the lamp on his nightstand and curled onto his side, facing away from Arthur. "Goodnight."

"Night," Arthur whispered. He lay awake for a long time, watching the lights from the city dance across Merlin's ceiling. Everything felt so surreal. He wanted to believe that things were just somehow working out exactly the way he wanted, but it had never happened so neatly before.

Except that this hadn't happened that neatly, either; Merlin had been hot and cold for weeks. Normally Arthur was so sure about who he was pursuing, but Merlin was just as baffling off stage as he was entrancing on stage. It was - there was really no other word for it, though Arthur was going to deny it had ever slipped past his lips - intoxicating.

 **-x-**

 **Day After Premiere**

Arthur woke up slowly, the sunlight creeping across his face and warming his whole body until it was right in his eyes and he couldn't fight consciousness anymore. He shifted away from the windows and opened his eyes, not entirely sure where he was for a moment.

The walls of Merlin's room were covered in maps of all shapes and sizes, some bright and tempting, others grey and unwelcoming. Arthur let his eyes wander over them, his thoughts not focusing on any in particular, until he realised that he was alone.

He sat up, rubbing his hands over his face and trying to coax his brain into alertness. He heard humming coming from somewhere else inside the flat. Arthur listened for a minute until he identified it as _Swan Lake_.

The tune changed abruptly into what Arthur was pretty sure was a tune from _Les Miserables_ , and then a moment later it switched to a Debussy piece. Arthur grinned and stood to stretch out a crick in his neck, listening as Merlin's humming swept across decades and genres until he started singing one of the Sufjan Stevens songs they'd listened to the night before.

Arthur emerged from Merlin's room to find Merlin in the kitchen, peeling an orange over the sink.

"Good morning," Merlin said, beaming. He handed Arthur a slice of orange and Arthur ate it slowly, hoping it would lessen his morning breath. "Did I wake you?"

"No. What time is it?"

"Eight. I'm afraid I'm not one for a lie-in."

"Me, neither." Arthur plucked another slice out of Merlin's hand and popped it in his mouth.

"That'll be trouble."

"Hm?"

"You being a morning person. And me being intoxicating."

Arthur narrowed his eyes as Merlin grinned wickedly. "What I _meant_ was… was your dancing."

Merlin tilted his head. "My dancing is intoxicating?"

"That was the subtext in me asking you to be my muse last night."

"Do muses usually get a vote?"

"Probably not," Arthur admitted. "But I figured I should be up-front about my intentions, since things between us have been so… inconsistent."

Merlin handed Arthur the last orange slice. "I am sorry about that. I didn't mean to make things so strange. I tried to hold my resolve, but… you might be a little intoxicating as well."

Arthur shook his head. "You're ridiculous."

"Maybe, but you clearly like it that way."

"What makes you say that?"

"You haven't left yet."

"No," Arthur agreed, smiling as Merlin moved closer. "You haven't asked me to, either."

"I wasn't really planning on doing so," Merlin teased before giving Arthur a long yet chaste kiss. "Are you still going to Elena's brunch?" he asked when he pulled back, running his fingers through Arthur's hair.

"Yeah," Arthur murmured, licking the taste of oranges off his lips.

"So, is it too soon for morning sex?"

Arthur chuckled. "I don't think that could even be possible."

Merlin moved forward, forcing Arthur to step back. He thought Merlin was leading him towards the bedroom, but after a few steps he found himself backed against the kitchen wall. They kissed again and Merlin pressed himself against Arthur, his fingers teasing the waistline of Arthur's boxers.

Arthur tried to keep up with Merlin's relentless kiss, but eventually he had to give up control and let Merlin take what he wanted. Arthur may have considered himself a morning person, but Merlin seemed to be truly awake - awake and ready and a little desperate, if the roll of his hips against Arthur's was anything to judge by. It took Arthur a few minutes to fully wake up and get hot, but once he was there, he was _there_ and he didn't want to wait anymore.

He fought to stay silent, trying not to let on how much Merlin's eagerness was affecting him even as he tried to push Merlin's buttons the same way, but the third time Merlin bit and tugged on his lower lip, Arthur couldn't hold back his groan. Merlin huffed at the sound and pressed his palm against Arthur's crotch. Arthur bucked against the pressure and slipped his hands under Merlin's boxers to grab onto his arse.

"Do you - _ah_ …" Merlin mumbled something in Danish as Arthur pressed a few fingers between his cheeks.

"Do I what?"

When Merlin didn't immediately respond, Arthur turned and pressed Merlin against the wall instead. He pushed Merlin's pants to the floor and dropped to his knees, licking a teasing stripe up Merlin's inner thigh.

Merlin sighed and tangled his fingers in Arthur's hair, trying to guide Arthur's mouth where he wanted it. Arthur didn't play along, taking his time to explore the dips and lines of Merlin's hips.

"Come on," Merlin urged, tugging at Arthur's hair. Arthur sat back on his haunches and looked up at Merlin. "What?"

"Magic word?"

Merlin took a deep breath and then said something in a rush of Danish.

"How do I know you weren't just swearing at me?" Arthur asked, reaching out and wrapping two fingers around the base of Merlin's cock.

"You don't."

Arthur smirked and got to his feet, letting go of Merlin's cock. "Come on." He grabbed Merlin's wrist and led the way to Merlin's bed.

Before Arthur could direct Merlin to sit on the bed, Merlin had pushed him down instead. Arthur shifted until his head was propped up by Merlin's pillows, and Merlin pulled off Arthur's boxers before straddling his thighs.

"That daylight is harsh," Arthur said, taking in Merlin's chest muscles. "You look horrible."

Merlin rolled his eyes and slid backwards until he had enough room to lean down and take Arthur's cock in his mouth. Arthur swallowed a groan and moved his hands to Merlin's shoulders.

Merlin's tongue was wicked and it didn't take very long for Arthur to start gasping and squirming. Merlin seemed to be focusing all of his attention on flicking his tongue across the sensitive spot just below the underside of the head of Arthur's cock and it was all Arthur could do to keep from coming.

"Shit, stop," Arthur pleaded, pushing at Merlin's shoulders when his thighs started twitching in anticipation.

Merlin stilled his tongue but took in Arthur's cock to the root. He locked eyes with Arthur as he pulled off, moving at a mind-altering slow pace that had Arthur completely forgetting how to breathe.

"Christ," Arthur panted when Merlin finally sat up. " _Fuck._ "

Merlin smiled smugly and licked his plump lips in an overtly filthy way. Arthur grabbed the base of his cock and squeezed it roughly, trying to signal to his body to _slow down_.

Merlin leaned down for a kiss and Arthur moved his hands to Merlin's backside, pushing their hips together.

"You're very sexy," Merlin muttered, sliding his cock against Arthur's.

"It's mostly an illusion." Arthur bucked up against Merlin a few times before rolling over, pinning Merlin under him. He kissed a brief trail down Merlin's chest before licking the full length of Merlin's cock.

"Finally," Merlin sighed, grabbing hold of Arthur's hair. Arthur let him guide the rhythm for a few minutes, until Merlin's breath started hitching every time Arthur tongue swirled over the head of his cock, and then Arthur grabbed Merlin's hands out of his hair and held them down on the sheets. Merlin whined and tried to break free, but Arthur tightened his grip and sank his mouth down on Merlin's cock as far as he could manage, and then he swallowed the rest.

"Holy -" Merlin garbled out a few words Arthur couldn't understand and then just gasped as Arthur worked his throat.

"Arthur - Arthur!" Merlin cried out a minute later, his fingers digging into Arthur's wrists. "Please, please - _hey!_." Merlin let out a high-pitched moan as Arthur pulled off with a cough. "Why'd you stop?" Merlin asked, breathless.

Arthur sat up and wiped his mouth with the back of one of his hands. "I thought you were asking me to," he lied.

"Why would I - fuck, your voice sounds hot like that."

"Like what? Hoarse from sucking you senseless?"

"Yes."

Arthur smiled and took a loose grip on Merlin's cock, stroking him lightly. "How do you want to…"

"I'm not letting you fuck me yet," Merlin said, lifting his hips as much as he could with Arthur's weight on his thighs.

"Heart-breaking."

"I could fuck you," Merlin offered.

"No, no. It'll be a showdown: who lets who… fuck who first. At least one of those was probably supposed to be a 'whom' but I really can't be arsed right now."

Merlin chuckled and pulled Arthur down for a long kiss. "Switch?"

Arthur rolled onto his back and Merlin climbed on top of him and then took both of their cocks in his hand. Arthur huffed and shifted his hips, trying to find a way to increase the friction.

Merlin tightened his grip and leaned forward for a kiss, his free hand reaching out past Arthur's head. He sat up a few seconds later, his fingers popping open a bottle of lube. Arthur hissed as Merlin poured too much of the cold, slippery stuff over their cocks, but then Merlin worked his hand roughly and Arthur stopped caring about how messy it was.

Merlin settled into a quick rhythm that left Arthur struggling to catch his breath. Merlin's fingers were so strong and sure and _long_ and it took everything Arthur had to _wait_.

To distract himself, Arthur kept one hand on Merlin's side, his fingers drifting over to tease the hairs trailing down from Merlin's navel. He used his other hand to tease Merlin's nipples, pinching and twisting them until Merlin was groaning and fighting to keep his eyes open and focused on his task.

"Let me," Arthur breathed, pushing Merlin's hand out of the way and taking their cocks in his own hand. Merlin reached behind himself to grab onto Arthur's legs and used the leverage to start sliding his hips across Arthur's. Arthur held his hand still, just keeping their cocks aligned as Merlin thrust them together, building up to a frantic pace.

He looked wild moving above Arthur like that, his hair sticking up in all directions and his cheeks and neck and chest flushed with arousal. His breathing was shallow and the push of his hips was sure, and Arthur couldn't remember the last time he'd been _so_ ready to come.

When he was close, too close to hold back anymore, he started pumping his hand in time with Merlin's thrusts and Merlin gasped and jerked gracelessly on top of him as he came suddenly all over Arthur's chest. Arthur followed immediately, groaning as one of Merlin's hands moved to pull roughly on his nipples.

"You're unbelievable," Merlin said, leaning down for a rough kiss before Arthur had even finished coming.

"I'm - _you_ are," Arthur panted as Merlin flopped down onto the bed next to him.

Merlin pressed his face into Arthur's arm, apparently trying to catch his breath even as he gave his cock a few last tugs. "Why didn't you let me finish in your mouth?" he asked after a minute, his voice slightly muffled against Arthur's skin.

Arthur smiled to himself. "I wasn't ready for it to be over, I guess."

"Very selfish."

"Probably."

Merlin pressed a kiss to Arthur's shoulder before sitting up. "What would you say to a shower, and then round two, and then going to Elena's brunch?"

"I would say 'fuck yes' to all of those. Especially the shower. And the more sex. And the food. So, 'fuck yes' to all. Emphatically."

Merlin chuckled and leaned down for a coy kiss. "Good."

Arthur curled his fingers around Merlin's neck and kept him there for a longer, deeper kiss. "Thanks for this."

"For what? The orgasm?"

Arthur shoved Merlin away playfully. "No," he said, sitting up. "For… changing your mind."

"Sorry," Merlin said, laughing unapologetically. "I can't have a serious conversation with you when you've got that much come on your front."

"Fair enough. Shower, then?"

Merlin stood, pulled Arthur to his feet, and led the way to his bathroom. They stepped into the shower and pretended to be concerned with cleaning themselves off for as long as they dared, but it didn't take long for Merlin to have Arthur crowded under the stream and locked in another filthy kiss.

"See?" Arthur asked as Merlin kissed a trail down Arthur's chest. "You're going to be so much trouble."

Merlin smiled mischievously and turned Arthur around so his chest was pressed against the wall. He reached around to stroke Arthur's cock as his own slid wetly against Arthur's arse. "I can't wait."

Arthur laughed and reached back to hold onto Merlin's hips as they rolled against him. "Me, neither."

 **-x-**

Elena didn't seem to notice that Merlin and Arthur had arrived to her brunch together, but Arthur could see Gwen and Gwaine smirking at them as Elena took their coats. He shushed them as best he could from across the room, not wanting to make a big deal of anything just yet. He had never liked to advertise his various affairs within the company, and based on how Merlin and Mordred had handled their brief fling, he had to assume that Merlin felt the same way.

"You're looking very happy this morning," Gwaine teased as Arthur sat next to him on the sofa.

"Why shouldn't I be?" Arthur asked innocently. "We had a great show last night."

"Are you sure that stupid smile doesn't have anything to do with sex with a certain dancer?"

Arthur watched as Merlin followed Elena into the kitchen, then turned to glare at Gwaine. "Just try for like, a teeny tiny hint of subtlety, would you?"

Gwaine gave Arthur a goofy wink but changed the subject. Arthur chatted with him for a while, then got up to help himself to a cocktail and mingle with the other guests when Gwaine went to help Elena bring out all the food.

The morning was fun and easy; Merlin joined a few of Arthur's conversations but mostly they busied themselves with their own friends, occasionally shooting each other a secret smile from across the room.

Arthur was full and a little tipsy from all the brunch cocktails by the time Morgana showed up, that morning's newspaper held high above her head.

"Who wants to read the first review?" she asked before anyone even had time to greet her.

Most of the dancers shook their heads, so Arthur volunteered, knowing Morgana wouldn't share the review unless it was positive. He got up from the sofa and unfolded the newspaper, skimming it briefly before clearing his throat.

"If you are looking for a traditional ballet full of wonder and love, stick with the classics available at the Royal and English National Ballets," Arthur read out loud. "If you are looking for a new experience that will make you question everything you're seeing on the stage and the delicate balance between good and evil, then Albion Ballet Company's first full-length original ballet, _The Swamp Faerie_ will fit the bill. Choreographed by Guinevere Smith, this ballet reveals all the potential of the young, innovative company and hints at what it might accomplish in future seasons under the meticulous artistic direction of Morgana Pendragon."

He continued reading aloud, allowing himself to smile at the brief praise for the orchestra but not taking in much of the rest of the article until the end.

"The highlight of show is the energetic performance by the newest principal, Merlin Emrys, formerly of the San Francisco and Bolshoi Ballets. As the titular character, he brings life and complexity to an otherwise simple story. His closing solo, co-choreographed by himself and Smith, is the stuff of legend and will serve the company well as it starts to compete in earnest with the more established local and national companies."

Everyone broke into cheers and applause as Arthur finished. He looked up from the paper to see most of the dancers gathering around Merlin, who was blushing prettily.

Arthur slowly made his way around the room, congratulating various dancers and musicians until he finally reached Merlin.

"Good job," he said, trying to sound as casual as he could.

Merlin beamed at him. "Thanks. That was a very nice review."

"The word you're looking for is 'glowing.'"

"The word might be 'overwhelming,' actually. I think I'm going to go back home and take a nap before the show tonight. I'll see you at the theatre?"

Arthur nodded and leaned in as close as he dared. "Do you want to come back to mine after?"

Merlin said nothing, but he gave Arthur's arse a quick squeeze before going to say goodbye to Elena.

"Really subtle."

Arthur turned to see Gwaine standing behind him and smirking.

"Shut up," Arthur said, rolling up the newspaper to smack Gwaine's backside.

Gwaine leapt out of the way, laughing, and went to help himself to more food. Arthur read over the review again, smiling to himself as he took in more of the details this time and realised he had been right - the show was going to be a _hit_ , and he couldn't wait to watch Merlin shine through another brilliant performance.


End file.
